Form Improvement Teams

Introduction:

Improving the system of care is done by a team which involves all staff whose work is part of the process being improved. Improvement teams should therefore be formed in those parts of the company where the survey has indicated opportunities for improvements.

Establish an improvement team:

Implementation steps:

1. Identify staff that have the most knowledge of the selected area for improvement
2. Form an improvement team to work on the improvement area.
3. Assign a team leader who will take responsibility for the team.

Team responsibilities involve:

• reviewing results;
• understanding the process you are trying to improve: use simple tools such as flow charts;
• Work with facility leaders to set aims for improvement.
• Developing ideas for testing changes that you believe will result in improvement
• Routinely measuring and reviewing project-specific indicator data
• testing changes that you believe will result in an improvement
• implementing changes that work throughout the clinic.

Form improvement teams:

1. It is the employees’ survey.
2. They have helped to design it themselves and, through their answers, they have shown where possibilities for improvements exist.
3. Therefore they should also be allowed a say in how to implement the improvements.
4. Improvement teams should therefore be formed in those parts of the company where the survey has indicated opportunities for improvements.
5. This means that improvement teams must be formed at both departmental level and cross organizationally.

The results of the employee satisfaction survey:

Fig: The results of the employee satisfaction survey for 1993 and 1994 in L.M. Erickson, Denmark: satisfaction and importance (results shown are from one department only with 17 employees in 1993 and 15 in 1994