“Well, Usually” Revisited

I have been reflecting recently on how far we have come in the quest to achieve our vision of providing the care we would want for our loved ones to every patient, every time. This goal is lofty, and I must keep reminding myself of this. With the aging of the population, people’s needs are growing, and we do not control the entire system of care – we struggle to meet the needs of those with serious behavioral health problems. We have designed so many improved processes like Gilchrist’s entire elder care system, our patient-centered medical homes, our ERAS (Early Recovery After Surgery) program, and so many more.

But we still have work to do. Recently, I was with a clinician and I asked her the “how do we do it” question when I wanted to learn more about one of our processes that did not seem to be highly reliable. My colleague started her response with “Well, usually we …” I knew immediately that we did not have standard work and that many hard-working people were doing it whichever way felt right to them. In a tightly coupled, complex system, a small deviation in one area can cause huge problems downstream. Many of us, including myself, were not trained in the importance of following system design so that we get predictable results. Instead, we learned to do whatever felt right to us in the moment. Standard procedures don’t always work for every patient, but when possible, processes must be standardized and followed. This is critical to creating consistent results for our patients.

Do you know the song This is how we do it, by Montell Jordan? (No, I’m not talking about partying). We need more of us able to state, “this is how we do it” when asked how we complete a task. Then we will move faster towards our vision!

New Parking Rules in Effect on Monday, August 13th
Starting this Monday, August 13th, the decentralized parking model will take effect and all new gates at the garages will be activated. All GBMC employees have been assigned a home lot or garage and will be able to “tap and go” their badges to enter and exit our medical campus. Your GBMC ID badge will be automatically programmed to function at your assigned parking lot or garage’s reader, and stickers will still be issued to monitor compliance at free parking areas such as the Bluebell and the Labor and Delivery parking lots, which will remain patient-only parking.

I want to remind all staff to tap their badge on the card reader at their assigned garage prior to Monday. If the card reader light does not turn green after you tap your badge, please contact Robert Cole at rcole@gbmc.org and Karalyn Stitcher at kstitcher@gbmc.org from the badging office. If your badge is not active prior to August 13, you will need to use a ticket and contact the badging and parking office. The following parking assignments will be in effect:
• All offsite staff, volunteers, physicians, and board members may park in any garage or parking area, EXCLUDING “patient only” spaces.
• All employees may park in Tulip (PPN) or Lily (ED Garage) at any time, any day of the week, EXCLUDING “patient only” spaces.
• All employees may park on Farmhouse Hill at any time, any day of the week.
• All employees working in PPE may park in PPE, EXCLUDING “patient only” spaces.
• All employees working in PPW may park in PPW, EXCLUDING “patient only” spaces.
• Only employees working in South Chapman may park in South Chapman (between the hours of 6 am to 5 pm).
• After 4 pm, all employees may park in all garages.
• On Saturdays, PPE and PPW will be open to all staff.
• On Sundays, all gates are up on all garages.
• Complimentary passes will continue to be accepted.

Again, employees should never park in Rose park or Bluebell park or park in "patient only” spaces. Any employees found parking in these lots will be towed.

These changes are needed to make the entrance to our campus safer for vehicular traffic and to reduce delays when entering and exiting from our grounds. They will also improve parking accessibility for our patients. I want to thank Stacey McGreevy, our Vice President of Support Services, and her team for working very hard to make the transition as easy as possible for our people.