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Bright Ideas Newsletter
This is a sample of the Bright Ideas Newsletter. The purpose of this newsletter is to provide clients with ideas for their Bright Ideas program using best practice examples from other clients. This issue spotlights John T. Mather Hospital.
Keys to Success
At John T. Mather Hospital (JTM) the implementation of their employee suggestion program, Bright Ideas has created quite the stir in Port Jefferson, Long Island, New York. Patty Zarb, Terri Quinn and the rest of the Bright Ideas Team have taken the concept of employee suggestions to new heights. The approach to their success began with team members being selected strategically to include a diverse representation of employees from day and night shifts and varied designations. Both Zarb and Quinn feel strongly that this element as well as leadership buy-in have been the key to the success of the program at JTM.
One of the first steps after selection of the team members was to survey the hospital employees to obtain their feedback as to what awards they would like to receive for their implemented ideas. Taking this information the team made recommendations on what would be meaningful awards being mindful of the feedback they received from fellow staff members. This placed true value on the employee and exhibited that they were listened too.
To reinforce the message of JTM's commitment to the Bright Ideas program as part of their Voyage to Excellence, JTM created a publication called Compass. In the first issue, Compass focused on educating staff about several service teams, including the Bright Ideas team, and also introduced the members of each of those teams ( view the first issue of Compass). This was a great way to inform staff about the program and to give them points of contact if they had questions about the program.
To make sure that all employees understand exactly how the Bright Ideas program works and the benefits of participating, JTM created a special brochure ( view the JTM Bright Ideas employee brochure). In the brochure, JTM clearly defines: what is and is not a Bright Idea, questions for employees to ask themselves to help generate new ideas, how the Bright Ideas process works, and prizes for participating. Notice how JTM offers prizes every month for implemented ideas. Additionally, they offer a snack from a special Bright Ideas vending machine for each idea submitted. They are rewarding every idea submission and further rewarding those whose ideas are implemented. These are great examples of how to get and keep employees interested in participating.
Within their first 90 days of introducing Bright Ideas to their employee family over 2,054 ideas have been submitted and out of those 216 ideas have resulted in implementation.
The following ideas are some recent ideas that have been Implemented Ideas, success stories:
- Pre-schedule per diems on schedules
This has decreased over-time, better staffing control, per diem availability, reduced hours spent calling staff in and increased patient and staff satisfaction. Cost savings to the hospital: $35,000 per year.
- Directional Signs instructing patients/visitors to various departments on the hospital grounds were installed
Hospitals can be very confusing places, this idea helps to alleviate that problem. Improving the patient experience should be the goal of every facility and improved navigation is one way to do this.
- Glass inserts were installed in the doors between PST and ASU to prevent future injury to employees and patients from these doors
Accidents can occur in the workplace, so anything that can be done to limit them is a positive. Accidents can result in injuries, workers compensation, and potentially lawsuits. By installing glass inserts in these doors, employees and staff can now see if anyone is on the other side of these doors before they open them, reducing the chance for accidents.
To keep the program on the minds of employees, JTM's Bright Ideas team continually has promotions to encourage participation. These promotions are done on a regular basis and offer rewards or prizes for idea submission and implementation. One of the keys to the success of the promotions included how JTM created flyers. In addition to announcing the prize available, the Bright Ideas team clearly identified different ways to access the software to submit ideas. Here are some examples of recent promotions:
Congratulations to the bright Ideas Team at John T. Mather. You are truly taken employee suggestions and turning them into great results for both your employees and the people we serve!
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