About CHOA
Children’s
Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA) is considered one of the largest pediatric
hospitals in the country and ranked nationally by U.S. News & World Report
in 10 pediatric specialties for 2012-2013. (US News & World Report, July 2012) According
to a 2009 study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, CHOA ranks 42nd in
the nation and has taken a lead on improving this ranking as a part of their 10
year, Vision 2018, Strategic Plan.
CHOA’S commitment to “family centered care of
children” is demonstrated throughout the organization and they have developed
numerous highly regarded projects and initiatives that support their vision – “best care ... healthier kids;” as well as their
values – “care about people, passionate about kids, dedicated to better.” Many of their constituent based
projects and programs have garnered them high recognition, awards and great
success such as: The Good Health
is in your Hands: A Hand Hygiene Improvement Initiative, a robust Influenza Vaccination
effort, Project S.A.V.E., the Asthma Care and Education (ACE) Program, the
Summer Camps program and numerous others. (Children’s Hospital of Atlanta,
Community Benefit Report, 2011)
Children’s
Healthcare of Atlanta serviced more than 300,000 families in 2011 and
contributed more than $149,000 in total community benefit. According to CHOA’s president,
Donna Hyland, “as an organization, the principal of CHOA’s strategic plan is
aligned with their vision, “best care….healthier kids” and include the
following:
·
Delivering
the best care—Children’s
ranked in all 10 specialties, as listed by U.S. News & World Report.
·
Inspiring
the best in people—Children’s
retained 55 percent of graduating residents and 75 percent of fellows in
Georgia, a state with critical shortages in pediatric medicine. In addition, we
had a benchmark nurse retention rate of 94 percent.
·
Transforming
pediatrics—Children’s
organized a coalition among more than 1,700 pediatric physicians and Georgia’s
hospitals to improve access to care and developed collaborations with our
academic partners to increase pediatric research activities and support.
·
Engage
and serve our communities—Children’s launched Strong4Life to lead the fight
against childhood obesity in Georgia.”
(Children’s Hospital of Atlanta, Community Benefit Report,
2011)
Addressing a Childhood Epidemic
CHOA’s
mission, “to make kids better today and healthier tomorrow,” drives their
strategic planning and is a significant component of their Vision 2018
strategic plan to “evangelize the merits of wellness.” In an effort to strategically position
the organization as a pediatric leader, CHOA continues to identify needs and
prevention measure opportunities that support their mission and one such area
identified for program and project development, in their portfolio, is
childhood obesity.
Nearly
40% of Georgia’s kids are overweight or obese, which means nearly 1 million
kids in our state are potentially facing a medical crisis. Childhood obesity has become a serious
public health problem and the two main reasons are being physical inactive and
poor nutrition. There is currently
a major focus throughout the country on health education and prevention, with
childhood obesity continuing to be the center of attention and a major issue
for discussion.
“A
year ago, First Lady Michelle Obama launched the “Let's Move!” campaign from
the front lawn of the White House.
The First Lady seeks to promote public awareness to involve parents in
the improvement of their children’s health and their own through education,
getting healthier foods in schools, improving access to healthful and
affordable food and their own parental empowerment.” (Semansky, 2011)
CHOA Leads the Charge in Georgia
The childhood obesity
epidemic is said to be more than 30 years in the making. In 2011, CHOA launched
Strong4Life,
a state-wide wellness movement with the purpose of creating greater awareness
of the danger of childhood obesity.
This is “the largest public awareness campaign on childhood obesity and
wellness to ever hit Georgia, along with programs, partnerships and clinical
intervention to help support kids when and where they need it.” (Strong4Life-Programs,
Children’s Hospital of Atlanta, 2011)
What is Strong4Life?
In
an effort to treat overweight and obese children, Strong4Life is designed to help
families change their behavior and build lasting lifestyle habits. Strong4Life reaches families
through public awareness, policy change efforts, school programs, healthcare
provider programs, community partnerships and more. Strong4Life makes improving family nutrition and physical
activity habits fun and provides parents and caregivers the support they need
to accomplish their goals.
Strong4Life
Consulting Plan
Business capacity
planning helps an organization determine if they can reasonably increase their
operational output without straining their current resources. CHOA’s first step in assessing their
strategic capacity to support the Strong4Life program requires
identification of the target customer , further assessment of internal
resources and identification of external resources that are required.
Problems Essential Issues
The
resolution of potential challenges and conflicts when organizational projects
are developed are well served when proper planning and the risk of potential
conflict has been assessed and prepared for. The undertaking of large scale events and activities such as
the Family Fitness Fair can bring about potential conflict. In the case of handling the projects in
this program the organization’s
Development Department may be uncomfortable with the added responsibility of
seeking additional resources from their well-established list of corporate
donors and sponsors. In addition,
there will be external vendors hired to work with the organization and
employees may feel uncomfortable or threated in their roles. For many employees this first time
Family Fitness Fair will require they do additional work.
How to solve the problem
Addressing
the needs the aforementioned challenges provide first requires that the project
be supported and championed at the highest levels. When engaging projects and team conflict it is important to
establish a clear scope and clarity in the roles and responsibilities of the
team members. When bringing staff
together throughout the organization cross functionally, it is important that
the project manager helps the project team develop a relationship and shared
sense of accomplishment.
Each person’s contribution is interrelated to another team member’s
contribution. Frequent, open
communication and updates will help the team see the value of their collective
efforts. It is also important to
include celebrating milestones in your project process. This helps to encourage the team and
they are less likely to be annoyed by their additional workload when they are
part of a winning team.
Actions Plan
Developing a successful quality management plan using the is
important to an organization as it seeks to be innovative and current. CHOA has placed a high value on being
innovative and engaging the community. Lean Management Principles have been
used effectively in manufacturing companies for decades, particularly in Japan.
IHI believes that lean principles can be indeed, already are being successfully
applied to the delivery in health care. It is important that they take the
following steps to effectively bring productive change to the organization and
develop a corporate culture that can support constant change while using the
Lean Health Care Training (Cambridge, MA: Institute for Healthcare Improvement;
2005 ) :
·
When quality is conveyed from the top of the organization it can
be far more easily accepted.
Leadership’s enthusiasm or lack of enthusiasm can make or break a
project or important program.
·
Engage employees and seek their involvement. People are less likely to have a
problem with something they are involved in.
·
Communicate, communicate, and communicate! Employees need to be clear about what
the change is and why it is important to the organization.
·
Get the information out frequently and early. Give employees a chance to adjust to
the change so that they do not feel blind-sided and unprepared to perform in
their jobs.
·
Put it in writing.
Don’t leave important information to the water cooler. It is ok to advise employees of change
verbally but also provide supporting documentation. It does not matter if it is a memo, newsletter or
email. Just make sure it is
something helps to underscore the importance of the project and the
significance of its success.
·
Turn your employees into your ambassadors by educating them and
when necessary, train them on the new process or program.
·
Solicit feedback and provide recognition and credit where credit
is due. If there is a resistance
to the change it is important that you get feedback directly from employees to
find out where the concerns are and address them. It is equally important to reward participation and positive
feedback from employees.
