Becker's Hospital Review

13 CLIC The culture behind Memorial Hermann's award- winning nursing units By Mackenzie Bean M emorial Hermann Health System in Houston is earning national recognition for embedding healthy work environments into daily operations — a strategy leaders say is key to retaining nurses in today's competitive workforce climate. In January, the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses recognized 580 hospital units nationwide with its Beacon Award for Excellence, which honors units demonstrating strong patient outcomes, professional practice and work environments aligned with the association's Healthy Work Environment standards. ese include skilled communication, true collaboration, effective decision-making, appropriate staffing, meaningful recognition and authentic leadership. Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center had 12 units earn the recognition this year, the most of any hospital in the nation. In total, 24 units across the system hold active Beacon Awards. Memorial Hermann Greater Heights Hospital has two gold-level Beacon Awards — the most gold-level recognitions within the system — and has emerged as a model for embedding healthy work environment standards into daily operations. As an inner-city, 260-bed community hospital in Houston, Memorial Hermann Greater Heights operates in a competitive nursing market, where leaders say a strong work environment has become a valuable strategy to attract and retain nurses. "A healthy work environment is a baseline expectation for us," Beth Reimschissel, PhD, vice president and chief nursing officer of Memorial Hermann Greater Heights Hospital, told Becker's. "It's not something that we're kind of crossing our fingers, hoping to gain, but truly the baseline expectation for those already working in those environments, for those that we try to recruit into those environments. It's actually one of our biggest tactics to get people to [stay]." Positive work environments also support greater staff engagement, better adoption of evidence-based practice and, ultimately, stronger patient outcomes, Dr. Reimschissel said. She credited the hospital's nursing engagement, in part, to strong transparency and shared ownership of performance. Rather than shielding bedside nurses from quality data, performance metrics are reviewed openly "whether it's good or bad," Dr. Reimschissel said. Fluctuations are expected and discussed as part of a continuous improvement cycle. Kham ai, MSN, RN, director of patient care at Memorial Hermann Greater Heights Hospital, echoed this message, saying performance is defined less by perfect metrics and more by how teams respond when performance shis. Beyond sharing data, leaders intentionally bring improvement conversations to the bedside through shared governance structures, allowing front-line nurses to help shape solutions. "We will never resolve all the issues around the table as healthcare executives if you're missing the key component of the person that was closest to the problem," Dr. Reimschissel said. at transparency extends across the system, as well. Dr. Reimschissel said performance data is shared openly across campuses, allowing teams to benchmark against one another and learn from higher-performing peers. Rather than using metrics punitively, the organization approaches them as opportunities for collaboration and shared improvement. Ultimately, Dr. Reimschissel and Mr. ai said the Beacon Awards offer an opportunity to celebrate front-line teams while reinforcing the culture that sustains nursing performance. at culture, they emphasized, extends far beyond the designation itself. "Beacon award is just not designation. It's not just the award," Mr. ai said. "It's a collection of the teamwork, the leadership support and the units' ongoing commitment to excellence for both patients and for our own nurses, as well." n The top workplace perk that keeps physicians at Northwestern By Mariah Taylor O f the 34 physicians Nauman Mushtaq, MD, has hired in the last decade, only two have left the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital. Yet he's recruited from University of Chicago, Brigham and Women's, Johns Hopkins and Cleveland Clinic. His secret to recruiting and retaining top talent? "Opportunity," Dr. Mushtaq, medical director of the Winfield, Ill.-based institute told Becker's. "We provide a clinical environment where they can practice what they've trained to do. If you don't offer that, you won't recruit or retain top talent." Although Northwestern's reputation helps, what is really keeping physicians at the system is professional fulfillment. Dr. Mushtaq said they prioritize resourcing physicians. "If we ask them to do something, we provide the infrastructure so they can practice safely and efficiently at the top of their license," he said. He said they are also lucky to be located in a thriving community. Many of the physicians they recruit "look more like my kids than me," and they are looking for quality of life in the community for their families. n

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