A few weeks ago I was talking with some hospital executives about their patient experience goals. They wanted great HCAHPS scores and were looking for the secret sauce. During our discussion, I noticed that they were making and supporting excuses for why their scores were so low.
After listening for a few minutes, I pulled up a slide with their mission, vision and values statements. I asked if they would be willing to put a disclaimer on any or all those statements to tell consumers that, although they stand behind their statements most of the time, they have some exceptions.
Of course, they thought the suggestion was ridiculous. But let’s get real. When we allow excuses to explain away our failures, we’re essentially putting a disclaimer on our mission, vision and values.
Look at the above photo. What disclaimer would you add to your mission, vision, values or advertising tag line?
Tags: Accountability, culture, HCAHPS, HCAHPS improvement, mission, Values, Vision
