Easy problem reporting, experimentation mindset, and enthusiastic ‘Ambassadors’ build a foundation for cultural change
“In healthcare today, it’s never been more important to see a problem and quickly get a resolution. In a big, complex hospital, there can be challenges to making things happen easily.
See to Solve has given us the opportunity to change how people think about the problems they face. Seeing responses faster encourages people to use See to Solve more to take ownership of problems they see.
Our pilot program – and I think this is the best part of the story – gave us the chance to experiment and learn. Progress is never a linear path. Now we’ve seen the impact and we’re really excited to take the next step and get See to Solve into the hands of all leaders.”
— Brad Parsons, Vice President and CEO/Administrator of Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis
The Challenge:
Cultural Improvement Hampered by Cumbersome Processes
Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis in Memphis, TN is a busy tertiary care center with 704
licensed beds, 3000+ employees and the flagship hospital of Baptist Memorial Health Care. In
May of 2020, Brad Parsons came on board as CEO/Administrator. “I took over right at the
outset of the pandemic,” explains Brad. “Everyone was busy.”
As Brad walked around, he started to get a sense of the culture and how things worked at the
hospital. “Culturally, I saw that problems were not escalated quickly. I didn’t see the ownership mentality of solving problems, and knew culturally we needed to change that. At the same time, I could see that we didn’t have a visual way to see the problems and know what was happening with them.”
Cumbersome reporting systems also were a challenge. “We didn’t have any centralized place
to submit issues,” explains Jared Moses, Administrative Director of Operations. “With multiple
systems in place, issues had to be escalated differently depending on the concern. This was
especially difficult for new employees who didn’t necessarily know what systems to use or who to contact.”
“We were battling a couple of different things,” says Brad. “I wanted to change the culture here but I also needed a platform or framework to do that and I needed a way to demonstrate the possibilities with a better approach.”
Brad teamed up with Skip Steward, Vice President and Chief Improvement Officer at Baptist
Memorial Health Care. “We collaborate on all things ‘Baptist Management System’,” explains
Brad. “That’s our Lean methodology for a management system approach.” Together they
looked for a platform and approach to shift things and were inspired by the legendary story of
Toyota’s improvement approach. “I really liked the concept of bringing a stop-the-line mentality to all the kinds of problems that manifest in a big, complex hospital like Baptist-Memphis,” says Brad.
The Solution:
Easier Problem Reporting Piloted by ‘Ambassadors’
Baptist Memphis launched its See to Solve pilot program in early 2022 with a core group of
20-30 Baptist Management System ‘Ambassadors’ as the initial user group. “These are our
‘Ambassadors’ for how we use Lean thinking in our daily work,” explains Brad, “so they were
the perfect group to understand why this was important.”
The team had two key priorities during the pilot. The first priority was making it easy to use so
problems could be reported in less than 15 seconds. “We wanted it to be so simple that users
didn’t have to think. Just pull out your phone, click click click, and you’re done,” says Jared.
“Behind the scenes, issues get routed and problems are fixed faster.”
The second priority was experimenting and learning to drive improvement faster. “With our
Ambassador group we began our experiment with IT and Environmental Services (EVS)
issues,” says Brad. “We learned from that, then expanded to cover Facility Services issues,
and have now expanded to over 100 leaders of varying levels in the organization using See to
Solve. We emphasized an ‘experimentation mindset’, and with each expansion we increased
access and problem reporting. We wanted people to own problem reporting, feel like they were being ‘heard’ via feedback and visibility, as well as fast resolution.”
The Results:
Dramatic Increase in Reported Problems, Faster Resolution and Momentum
Problem reporting increased dramatically during the pilot program with a 346% increase in IT
tickets and a 203% increase in Facilities tickets. “Facilities quickly became the number one
type of ticket submitted,” says Jared.
In EVS, the hospital did not have a previous ticketing system at all, so visibility to problems and tracking resolutions was hard to come by. “With See to Solve, we finally were able to get
visibility into this area,” says Jared. “See to Solve kind of became the ticketing system for EVS,
which was a bonus.”
Reporting a problem became an easy, quick task for users, regardless of the kind of problem.
One of the challenges for managers prior to using See to Solve was the number systems for
requesting help and tracking problems. “We have so many systems, so many things we have
to remember logins for, or remember who to ask, where to go” says Brad. “With See to Solve,
it’s taken all that off the table. Just use See to Solve. It’s one thing and it’s easy to use.”
More importantly, problems were getting fixed faster, which in turn excited users, encouraged
more reporting, and built momentum. “The end users have really talked about how helpful it’s been and how quickly their issues are being resolved,” says Brad. “That perception and
experience is important. It’s truly been an experiment, with our pilot group helping us to learn, and with terrific support from the See to Solve team.”
Visibility and a closed-loop feedback system are further building momentum. “We didn’t have
this kind of visibility before,” says Jared. When a user reports an issue, they can see the
follow-up notifications in the See to Solve App, so they know what’s happening and know when an issue is resolved.”
“It’s more than meeting expectations,” says Brad. “The implications for leaders is the biggest
part. Whether they are brand new leaders or they’ve been here a really long time, this is
helping them to be better leaders, see what’s happening and solve things for their areas or
units.”
The focus on making it easy is paying off with strong adoption among leaders in the pilot
group. With leaders on board, the team expects to expand See to Solve to all employees at
Baptist Memphis. “Our message to front-line staff will be ‘It’s an option,’” says Jared. “We’re
not making people submit tickets this way but we know everyone is walking around with a cell phone and this is an option for reporting issues.”
Expansion to new coverage areas is happening as well. “Next will be Clinical Engineering,”
says Jared. “And, we’re looking into using QR codes or NFC tags on equipment to further
improve what we’re doing.”
Going forward, the team has plans to expand to new areas. “We’re making use of it now on
rounding, including our ‘Environment of Care’ rounds,” says Brad. “We also want this to go well beyond just our flagship hospital, so next we’ll be looking at expansion to our Women’s and Children’s hospitals and other areas.”