Kirby Medical Center Wins Honorable Mention at ICAHN's 2015 Hospital 'Innovation of the Year' Award Ceremonies

Kirby Medical Center won Honorable Mention for its KirbyWellness Program at ICAHN's 2015 Hospital 'Innovation of the Year' award ceremonies held November 11 at The Crowne Plaza, Springfield. Accepting the award for the hospital were Karin Sykes, Director of Therapy Services, and Sara Wade, Director of Food and Nutrition Services.

"What these hospitals have done for their employees, their patients, and their communities is nothing short of amazing," said Angie Charlet, Director of Quality and Educational Services. "There is such a depth of innovation in all the projects submitted that I strongly encourage you to share ideas and insights. It was a truly difficult decision as each and every submission was worthy of the honor."

Shown above are Sara Wade (left) and Karin Sykes of Kirby Medical Center, Erin Frank of Paris Community Hospital, and Denise Browning of Hamilton Memorial Hospital.

  

2015 HOSPITAL 'INNOVATION OF THE YEAR' HONORABLE MENTION

Kirby Medical Center's KirbyWellness Program

Submitted by Karin Sykes, Director of Therapy Services, and Sara Wade, Director of Food and Nutrition Services

Prior to 2014, all Kirby Medical Center employees were able to enroll in the hospital’s employee Wellness Program; however, participation was limited due to the Wellness Program incentive being a discount on the hospital’s employer-offered health insurance benefit, which many employees did not use. The original Wellness Program was a participation-based program using a points system, which allowed for excessive subjectivity and varying levels of the participants’ ownership to make personal lifestyle changes to improve one’s health. Strong administrative support, however, has allowed the rebranding of Kirby’s Wellness Program to ‘KirbyWellness,’ complete with a ‘KirbyWellness’ logo. ‘KirbyWellness’ is a results-based program directly tied to biometric health outcome measures and features an annual cash incentive. The incentive is now available to all employees participating in the program, regardless of their employment status. The health outcome measures were approved by Kirby’s Chief Medical Officer and are based on a review of guidelines established by the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, and the Illinois Department of Transportation.

KIRBY MEDICAL CENTER – Employee Communication / Recognition

Submitted by Heidi Apperson, Director of Marketing and Community Relations

In an effort to improve communication among employees and build teamwork, Kirby Medical Center developed programs to enhance and improve its internal communications including, but not limited to, employee surveys, forums, the KirbySpace blog, Kirby Intranet, team meetings, and rounding. An Employee Partnership program in which employee surveys were gathered and analyzed was created, and a Patient Improvement Employee Collaboration Committee was formed. At each meeting, patient survey results are reviewed, goals are made, and opportunities for improvement are addressed. The objectives of the committee are to improve service results, patient experience, and collegial relationships by promoting the understanding of the impact of the patient experience and colleague engagement; achieve a 95% overall mean satisfaction score measured by Press Ganey or HCAHPS; promote the understanding of the Employee Gain-Sharing Incentive Program; and assist leaders in identifying solutions for department-specific problem areas.