CEO Update: Strategic plan review

We started our three-year strategic plan a year ago, and we’ve accomplished so much. Our trajectory is great here at CMH, and our future is really bright.

Continue reading or watch the CEO Update video for details.

Strategic plan progress

Some of our biggest successes in FY24 pertain to quality, growth, access to care and employee recruitment.

Quality: Our journey to high reliability means patients can count on the same level of quality care anywhere in our organization. We’ve made a lot of advancements in ensuring consistent processes. That was evident through our Leapfrog recognition this year. Part of that high-reliability work is ensuring patient safety.

The Leapfrog Group recently recognized us with an “A” rating. That basically means that we’re one of the safest hospitals in America. We know that, but it’s good to have someone else tell us that and give us that recognition.

Growth: When we’re growing, we’re providing more services that patients need here in this community. CMH has seen significant growth in the amount of services provided. We have a record number of surgeries, emergency room visits, and clinic visits this year. Bringing on quality physicians is always our focus, and several are joining us in FY25.

The biggest growth with our facilities is our hospital expansion. That project is now starting to be where people can see it. We’ve been planning over the last several years for this very large project. Now, we’re working on demolishing the south part of the hospital to prepare for building the south tower.

Access to care: We set up a task force to look at patient barriers to care and how we can remove those barriers. One focus area was screening mammograms. People ought to be able to schedule those online at their convenience. We gave our patients access to mammograms. We did this because we know that finding problems early is better for their health.

We also focused on access to immediate care through our walk-in clinics. It’s important to be able to save your place online and wait at your convenience. Getting in earlier when people start to feel sick is better for their overall health. We’re continuing to look at ways to make it easier for our patients to access health care.

Employee recruitment: One focus across the organization, especially in long-term care, is hiring great staff who are completely committed to CMH. This effort allows us to reduce our dependency on temporary staffing. We are being creative. We put job ads where people see them and make good job offers. We’ve been able to make a lot of significant gains in reducing temporary staffing by hiring our own staff.

We’re really focused on this because our full-time and part-time staff are dedicated to our mission. They live here in our communities. They see the difference we make in people’s lives. It’s just better for quality patient safety if we hire our own staff instead of relying on agency staffing. Every day, we’re reducing the amount of temporary staffing we have on the floor. That’s going to be better for our employees, better for our patients and residents, and better for CMH as a whole. I want to commend all those who are working on recruiting.

Strategic plan refresh for FY25

We’re working on refreshing our strategic plan for FY25, which begins on June 1, 2024. Action plan owners report to the organization’s flagpole champions. We ask the owners what they see as the next steps for their strategic action plans. As an executive team, we use that information to refresh the plan for the upcoming fiscal year. We learned a lot this year, which we will use to inform our action plans.

We don’t expect the plan to change completely. Some of the plans from last year will continue into this next year. We will build on a foundation we created for some of our plans, but there are also new strategic focuses. We should roll out our new, updated strategic plan for FY25 in June.

I really appreciate where we are right now with our plan and where we will be. We have all the right pieces in place to be successful in the future. We will see continued growth of our services and new physicians joining CMH. We’re always focused on improving quality and safety for our patients. We have initiatives right now on the strategic plan to continue that work and our journey to high reliability.

Our goals equate to better, safer and higher-quality patient care – and that’s the way to greatness. I’m excited about our future and look forward to this next year.

Michael Calhoun shares the latest happenings at CMH in his monthly CEO Updates. He is the CEO/executive director of CMH and the Citizens Memorial Health Care Foundation.