Healthcare and Science thomsonreuters.com

Silver Cross Hospital is located on the east side of Joliet in a poor, residential neighborhood. In the mid-1990s we needed a strategy to create a compelling reason for people to choose to get their care here. So we focused on three things and purposely kept the strategy simple. First we focused on cost. We wanted to be sure we were able to manage our expenses to our revenue. Second, we focused on quality - both customer service and clinical outcomes. Our objective was to provide an exceptional experience at Silver Cross. And lastly, we focused on growth. So our employees knew that they only needed to think about three things: cost, quality and volume. Achieving Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals status for 5 years is an affirmation of the hard work we have done. The question is - how did we do it?

I have been the CEO here for 19 years and learned early that we had to tell people exactly what we were requesting of them and then have them buy into it. When I first suggested that we strive to become a 100 Top Hospital, many of the directors were doubtful about such a stretch goal. I told them, "you might be right", but whether or not we actually win the award doesn't matter. What matters is that we will improve patient care - no one could argue with that!

Our focus on cost helped us to build a strong foundation for operating the hospital. Back in the early 1990s, we reduced our costs by 25%. Most importantly, we did not allow creep. We use the Thomson Reuters benchmarks for staffing and supplies and set annual targets. Our employees understand this and are accountable for their budgets and costs.  Instituting the discipline to control our expenses and be flexible gave us the breathing room to next focus on customer service and clinical outcomes.

In 1998, we first measured patient satisfaction and were not pleased to learn that we were in the bottom 10% of hospitals. No one was happy with that - we had nowhere to go but up. We developed six behaviors that we instituted across the organizations - we still have the same six behaviors today and our employees practice them day in and day out. They include greeting people, wearing your name badge, explaining to patients what is being done, picking up litter and escorting patients and visitors from point A to point B - no one points out directions at Silver Cross! We've actually become "famous" for this in our community. And the last behavior is to simply thank people for choosing Silver Cross. Our patient satisfaction scores now are in the 90th percentile and our brand is associated with outstanding customer service. 

Clinical quality is also an area where we constantly measure our performance - we create annual goals for things like core measures and safety indicators. We distribute monthly score cards, and post results in the physician lounge. Everyone in our hospital is tied to the quality goals. We reach the goals because everyone in the organization, including the physician leadership, works as a team to get there.

Lastly, we focused on growth. Between 1995-2005, we increased volume and net revenue by 100%. Market share increased by over 7 points which equates to about 2,000 admissions - that's a lot in the hospital world! Silver Cross became the market leader in the service area in 2006 and remains so today. Now we are building a replacement hospital at a cost of $400 million. We are building partnerships with organizations throughout Chicago that will bring new expertise and outstanding care to our community. Just last month, we launched a new relationship with the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) - the #1 rehabilitation hospital in the county. RIC will be managing our inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation services.

We know that we can't grow the hospital without the medical staff so we pay a great deal of attention to physician relationships. Last year we did a physician satisfaction surgery and ranked in the top 1% of the database. Our staff treats physicians and patients with exceptional courtesy - in fact we've coined the phrase "The Way You Should be Treated" as the hospital's byline.