Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1293445
172 172 THOUGHT LEADERSHIP Communicating during uncertain times in real time By John Couris, Holly Graziadio and Stacey Brandt of Tampa General Hospital A t Tampa General Hospital, we're focused on facilitating hon- est and transparent two-way communication with our team. In fact, an integral part of our organizational culture is pro- viding platforms for an ongoing exchange of ideas. is spring, when we found ourselves on the front lines of a global pandemic, we realized the need to lean in and focus more than ever on ensuring that our team members heard from us regularly and that we were able to capture and respond to their ideas and concerns in real time. While we had protocols in place and performed significant drills and exercises to prepare for health emergencies and natural disasters — we are located in Florida, and hurricane preparation is a way of life here — the COVID-19 pandemic brought unique, once-in-a-lifetime challenges. Under the most stressful conditions, our team members heroically served as both caregivers and stand-in family members. At the same time, they had to deal with the anxiety of maintaining their health and that of their own families. As members of the senior leadership team, our primary focus — in addition to the care of our patients — was the support and safety of our team members. We began by disseminating communications directly from our office across multiple platforms — direct emails, our internal portal, social media channels and virtual meetings inside the organization — and several times a week. We even developed a communication app that team members could access from their phones. is strategy allowed us to ensure the consistency of the communications and also reassure our team members that they could count on regular emails directly from us. e content of the transparent communications from our office was designed to not only provide valuable information on pro- tocols, challenges that we were facing, and proposed solutions, but to offer words of encouragement and acknowledgment as to how hard our team was working in the most challenging of circumstances. In April and amid our pandemic caregiving, we were approached by Press Ganey, the company with whom we partner on our annual team member engagement survey, to participate in their newly designed COVID-19 Pulse Survey. Unlike our highly detailed annual team member assessment through Press Ganey, the Pulse Survey would allow us to leverage a listening platform designed to capture in real time team member feedback and input on how we were respond- ing, as both an organization and as a senior leadership team, to the COVID-19 pandemic. We saw the survey as an incredibly useful tool to bolster our ongoing two-way communication efforts and allow us to establish an immediate feedback loop on our organizational and leadership response. We are proud that we became the first organiza- tion in the country to implement the tool. We then set about designing, standing up and distributing the survey. e survey consisted of several demographic questions, 10 rated items, and two open-ended questions for comments, and was designed to take only three to five minutes to complete. It was administered in an open format, where team members, physicians and providers were all invited to participate using the same link over four weeks. We wanted to make the survey easy to disseminate, access and respond to so that folks would see the value in participating without viewing it as an ar- duous task or an additional burden. Our goal was to use the feedback to inform our continued response to the current crisis and to design ongoing strategies for potential situations that might arise in the future. roughout the survey period, over 5,000 team members (or 60 per- cent) responded to the survey — exceeding the national average for pulse surveys. e survey consisted of 10 statements focused on crisis management, communication, and team member resiliency and safe- ty, and two open-ended questions. is format allowed us to quickly gauge how the team was feeling while identifying themes and trends about what was most important to the team during this time so that we could either make adjustments as needed or continue with chang- es that were well received. All 10 survey items received a score of above four, and our team members shared over 4,000 written comments. On the five-point rat- ing scale, a score of four means that the responder agrees with the statement, and a five means they strongly agree. e immediate benefit of the survey was that we had real-time access to feedback from our team. A vital component of the survey process became a daily schedule of reviewing feedback during the four-week open survey period. is work allowed us to immediately address concerns, identify and find solutions to challenges raised by team members, and provide additional information as requested. For example, we received several comments, and right away, asking for additional specificity related to the number of COVID-19 patients and the number of team members testing positive for the virus. In response, we began posting a highlight of the statistics on the TGH portal. Had we not had the survey in place, it might have taken much longer for senior leadership to be made aware of this gap in commu- nication, and given the solution was fairly straightforward to imple- ment, the survey made all the difference. In addition to providing easy access to COVID stats on an ongoing basis, we were able to analyze team member responses and offer ad- ditional opportunities for positive change that made a real difference to our team. ese included providing additional information on PPE inventory, extending our limited visitor policy and screening proto- cols, creating processes and guidelines for travel requests, and con- tinuing with our remote work environment for those team members who do not need to be on-site. When we first launched the survey, we were confident that it would help us facilitate direct communication and respond to new and un- anticipated challenges. We could not have imagined the heightened level of organizational communication, camaraderie and goodwill it engendered and the transformative effect that it has begun to have across the entire organization. During the challenging times we have faced during the pandemic, we have witnessed the attitudes of our team members remain incredibly positive. ey have responded that seeing their concerns addressed honestly and quickly have directly contributed to their feelings and have contributed to their desire to not only maintain their high stan- dards but to continue to seek ways to improve. While we have always been incredibly focused on direct communica- tion with our team, our level of consistency and frequency, facilitated in part by the survey, has grown. Our team perceives our communi- cation to be even more robust, transparent and frequent and has ex- pressed sincere gratitude for our efforts. We continue to receive cards and emails and are stopped during our walks throughout the hospital to acknowledge the level of feedback that we have continued to provide.