“You hear time and time again, ‘there just aren't enough people to fi ll the jobs that we have,’” said Jones. “We're not immune from that. For us to achieve our long-range goals, we have to deal with those gaps, strengthen capabilities and drive higher performance standards than we have in the past.”
satisfaction data illustrates how customer satisfaction is fed, ultimately predicting the achievement of service and clinical outcomes—that they are representative of the highest standard of care someone would evaluate when measuring the performance of one organization versus another.
For example, last year, Integritus created a new recruitment structure across the state. Now, the organization has dedicated resources focused on meeting the needs of its a ffi liates for additional sta ff . Raising Clinical and Service Quality Performance The fi rst pillar supports the second, which is raising Integritus Healthcare’s clinical and service quality performance levels, back to, and exceeding, where they were pre-pandemic. “We were at the highest levels in every rating category that one would
Prioritizing Growth But the cost of providing great care does not go down; it continues to rise year after year, fueled by labor costs, in fl ation and all the necessary expenditures of running a successful organization. This is why the third strategic pillar is growth. “We need to be able to fi nd new ways to spread that cost over a broader range of services, given that we're so highly dependent on federal and state revenues to support that cost base,”
“It's incumbent upon leaders across the system to role model behaviors to engage sta ff and demonstrate that they are making a positive di ff erence in the lives of the people they serve.” Bill Jones, Integrit Healthcare President and CEO
said Jones. “They're not inclined to just provide handouts to providers matching that cost. So, the challenge is fi nding more e ffi cient and e ff ective ways to do what we do.” In the decade prior to Covid, Integritus grew signi fi cantly in senior housing services in Western Massachusetts, particularly in the Assisted Living arena. The organization then began to build out, through a series of mergers and acquisitions, hospice services to complement the inpatient health care and residential communities it supports. “We'd like to re-engage on that work in the eastern part of the state,” said Jones. “And there's some potential to enter markets we think we can add value to, given our not-for-pro fi t status.” Opportunities for Innovation When combined, these three pillars necessitate innovation—particularly when situated directly following a global pandemic. With growth comes the need for relevance. In order to exceed pre-pandemic standing, Integritus is constantly evaluating its o ff erings to ensure the organization is appropriately growing and evolving to meet the needs of the communities it serves.
consider to be the ‘standard bearer’ for what great quality looks like in post-acute care,” said Jones. “As I said, the pandemic hijacked that work. We now need to pivot aggressively to get back to where we were and surpass it.” According to Jones, achieving outstanding quality performance—and being the preferred choice for service providers—is grounded in the performance of Integritus Healthcare’s people, and sta ff at every level, feeling a sense of alignment with that strategy. He went on to say, “It's incumbent upon leaders across the system, myself included, to role model behaviors and performance aligned with our vision for excellence. And to work every day to engage sta ff in what that looks like for them—what's in it for them; how to make their work purposeful, so they can feel it's worthwhile. Then we can demonstrate to them that they are making a positive di ff erence in the lives of the people they serve.” Data charted over the last 12–14 years shows the trajectory of employee engagement and satisfaction over time. Leadership calls this “the big picture correlation.” The trajectory of the employee
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. | Integrit
Healthcare | Summer 2023 | Issue 44
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