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And just like that, our summer months are now a memory. Schools are back in session, the summer crowds have slowly diminished, and the locals are beginning to reclaim all of the wonderful amenities and outdoor beauty our region has to offer. It is my hope that you had a remarkable summer that included time with family and friends.
As I stated in my last Leadership Update, we have entered a new year with new energy and an ambitious set of plans. The headwinds in healthcare continue to remain strong, but I am confident that we can weather the challenges that face Maryland hospitals as we navigate our future. Earlier this year, the Board of Trustees, Senior Leadership Team, and Medical Staff Leadership participated in a months-long exercise to carefully evaluate our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. We did a thorough review of Atlantic General Hospital ranging from our clinical operating performance, the health of our workforce and medical staff, the immediate and long term equipment and facility needs of the organization, and the financial performance over the past couple of years. The process was incredibly constructive and insightful for me as I embark on my second year leading AGH. The outcome was the formation of a 3-year strategic plan that focuses on 5 core themes and strategic imperatives. They are:
- Strengthen Core Services
- Improve the Performance of Atlantic General Health System
- Nurture a Workforce Strategy that supports our Mission
- Diversify Revenue and Cost Structure
- Strive for High Reliability and Organizational Excellence
Strengthen Core Services
AGH seeks to provide improved operational efficiency and quality care in our core clinical services through a growth strategy in programs that are profitable to the organization. This requires that we pursue a focused strategy to strengthen the medical staff and support the assimilation of new providers recruited into our community. We believe we have the ability to further increase our market share in orthopedic surgery, women’s health, and other surgical services by stemming outmigration to competing hospitals. AGH was recently awarded a $250,000 grant to purchase new video equipment to support our minimally invasive surgery services. Advanced technology, including the Stryker MAKO robot, coupled with our outstanding team in Surgical Services positions AGH to offer our community the most advanced services with a staff that knows how to deliver patient-focused care, meaning patients should demand to have their surgery here. We are also focused on leveraging our information technology to fully support our work. The Sunrise 22.1 upgrade to occur later this month will provide enhancements to EHR and business applications. Technology must support our efforts in driving patient throughput and care efficiency. Reducing overall length of stay, reducing outpatient observation days, and expediting timely discharges sooner in the day are part of a robust strategy to improve and strengthen core services at AGH.
Improve the Performance of Atlantic General Health System
Our ambulatory and outpatient medical practices are an integral and incredibly important element of our organization. As we seek to reduce cost and avoid preventable hospital utilization, both major tenets to Maryland’s unique reimbursement structure, it is critical that we fully support the management of our practices, providing robust training to our front office staff, partnering with our providers to improve access for patients, and redesigning how we compensate providers to ensure that the individual and organizational goals are both achieved. Navigating health care can be overwhelming for patients as they experience silos, fragmentation, inconsistency in information, and on and on. Simply put, patients assume clinical competency in their health care provider. They are most interested in a more coordinated approach to their care. They desire as little friction as possible when scheduling an appointment, are in need of a test, or just inquiring about a billing statement, so working together across the organization to make it as easy as possible for our patients to interact with every aspect of our health system is a priority. Let’s commit to the golden rule of doing for others what we would like others to do for us.
Nurture a Workforce Strategy that Supports our Mission
It is often said that any organization’s most important asset is its people. That’s the case at AGH. Our strategic plan outlines a renewed commitment to investing in our people by maintaining competitive wages and employee benefits, including the introduction of new career ladders and leader development and training programs. We will also focus on the ongoing training and development needs of our associates, enhancing our HUGGS training program, and empowering all of our associates to share their voice on how we can further support and enhance AGH’s reputation as the preferred health care employer in the region. Working with the various training programs across the region, we will create avenues for emerging health care workers to join the excellent culture that exists at AGH.
Transform our Revenue and Cost Structure
Coming out of fiscal year 2023, hospitals and health systems across the country are experiencing a new set of financial challenges resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. Rather than lament the difficulty faced, I would rather focus on the opportunity. AGH will remain a highly relevant and incredibly valuable community asset. We will look to find opportunities to partner with other like-minded organizations that will to help support our mission of meeting the health needs of our growing community. Reducing unnecessary utilization, maximizing payer incentive programs, and innovating care management strategies to keep patients healthy and out of the hospital are imperatives. Pursuing aggressive cost saving strategies through our group purchasing agreements for costly medical and drug supplies enables us to redirect investments in our people.
Strive for High Reliability and Organizational Excellence
Delivering a highly reliable experience to our patients is our highest aim. Preventing harm to our patients and optimizing their personal experience when dealing with any aspect of AGH has to be top of mind for each of us. We desire to be a learning organization so every incident reported provides us with the opportunity to ask what happened, why it happened, and how it could have been prevented. Taking a non-punitive approach to process improvement, AGH will create a culture of safety excellence as we pursue zero harm to our patients. If you see an opportunity to improve care and reduce the potential for harm, you are encouraged to share it. Quality and patient safety is everyone’s responsibility.
Beneath each pillar of our strategic plan is a comprehensive set of initiatives. I encourage you to speak with your manager or director on how your role supports these goals.
Finally, I want to encourage you to take part in the 2023 Associate & Provider Engagement Survey. This survey opens today and runs through the next several weeks. Your voice matters and we want it to be heard. Please take a few minutes to complete the anonymous survey and share your thoughts and ideas about how we can improve AGH. Read the section below for more information.
As always, thank you for all that you do. Your work matters and our patients depend on it.
Onward and upward, together!
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