Page 16 - 2017 Nursing Annual Report | Summa Health
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Exemplary Professional
Practice
Aspiring to drive change
in patient care, work
environment and work flow
Summa Health nurses understand that improving our environment affects
the health and well-being of our entire population. We are committed to
doing our part in this extremely important mission.
The ASPIRE program provides Summa employees with What’s more, ASPIRE is an employee-owned program.
an opportunity to foster ideas for continuous process It’s governed by a leadership-supported employee
improvement as part of their everyday routine. Piloted committee that reviews suggested improvements, as
in November 2016 within Surgical Services on the well as identifies and provides the necessary resources.
Akron Campus, the program received more than 50 Nursing, in particular, helps lead the multi-disciplinary
submissions – representing an impact of greater than group across all three campuses and all departments
$250,000 – within just nine months. As a result of this within Surgical Services, including CRNAs and staff
overwhelming success, ASPIRE was launched system- nurses. “Employees are encouraged to participate in the
wide in September 2017. implementation of their ideas and drive them forward,”
says Vice President, Surgical Services, Women’s Health
ASPIRE encourages employees to submit and Trauma Services, Kaye Reiter, MSN, RN, NE-BC.
innovative and creative ideas to improve “Summa even gives employees time to work on ASPIRE
Summa Health – and the way we work. projects during work hours as needed.”
Focusing on ideas with significant
business impact, ASPIRE aims to: To submit ASPIRE ideas, Summa employees (both full
and part time) complete a form available on the Summa
Add value intranet. A qualified submission should present the
problem, an idea for improvement and the identified
Save money benefit to the department. Once complete and submitted,
the form is routed to the Performance Solutions Team
Produce better, smarter results for review. If the idea is approved, the team discusses size
and scope of the project, as well as system priorities to
Increase revenue determine appropriate implementation and timetable.
The committee meets monthly to review ideas and work
Reduce risk toward implementation, and the submitter receives
regular updates on the submission status.
Eliminate waste
The Summa ASPIRE pilot program was driven
by the theme line, “How do you eat the
elephant? One bite at a time.” This elephant
graphic, located in the Surgical Services
hallway, is still being used to track initiated and
completed improvements.
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