Once again, for those new to this blog site, at present there are 20 posts on the blog and each has its own set of comments. To read the comments you have to hit the word "Comments" at the beginning or end of the post. Somewhat confusing is that when you bring up the comments for a specific post it eliminates the other posts from the screen. To bring the other posts back up simply go back to the top of the page and click on Blog. Finally, to understand the development of the blog it is best to read it from the bottom post (Dr. Paul Kearney Case) up. One point of note here, to read the earliest posts you have to click on the word "<<Previous" at the very bottom of the posts available.
* Note: To see PDF Documents cited in this post simply click on the underlined segment
In a previous blog post (Press-Ganey Physician Engagement Survey) we discussed both the survey itself and its relationship to the current low morale situation that exists in both the UK Healthcare complex and in the College of Medicine. I always thought that, with respect to these types of surveys, a very good barometer of the character of any administration is how they view and use the results of a survey like this. In other words, do you bury it or do you use it constructively to try to make things better. From all that I have seen and heard thus far, one can only be disappointed in the path chosen by our hospital and College administrations. So let’s just briefly overview:
All of this unfortunately suggests that this hospital and even university administration, only wish to bury the results of this survey. Furthermore, the past history of this administration suggests that the University’s General Council is more likely to be consulted about these problems than the university physicians, faculty and staff. Hopefully the new Dean will take these survey results more seriously than Dr. Karpf has, but I am not going to hold my breath on that.
In conclusion, my Mom always told me, “If you can’t be part of the solution don’t be part of the problem.” In this vain I invite the physicians, faculty and staff reading this blog the opportunity to offer “constructive” suggestions for improving the morale and working environment in the hospital and College. I would be happy to pass them on to the BoT and administration.
* Note: To see PDF Documents cited in this post simply click on the underlined segment
In a previous blog post (Press-Ganey Physician Engagement Survey) we discussed both the survey itself and its relationship to the current low morale situation that exists in both the UK Healthcare complex and in the College of Medicine. I always thought that, with respect to these types of surveys, a very good barometer of the character of any administration is how they view and use the results of a survey like this. In other words, do you bury it or do you use it constructively to try to make things better. From all that I have seen and heard thus far, one can only be disappointed in the path chosen by our hospital and College administrations. So let’s just briefly overview:
- To begin with, the administration limited the sharing of a partial summary of the results of this survey as a presentation to a select group of physicians on a Friday afternoon prior to the Memorial Day weekend. Fortunately for us, someone was kind enough to send me this presentation so that I might likewise share it with blog readers (if you have yet to see it, it is here).
- Not having the opportunity to attend this meeting, I would be interested in hearing how the data on pages 22 and 23 (see survey), evaluating Engagement and Alignment, were presented to this audience. Clearly the numbers themselves reveal very little, and in fact tend to be counterintuitive. Numbers like 3.52 and .43 would appear to most to be small and seemingly insignificant, and rankings that show a movement from 2nd to 1st and 5th to 1st could easily be misinterpreted as improvement rather than the going from pretty bad to the worst ranking in the greater than 1,200 healthcare organizations surveyed.
- The leaking of this survey appeared to have had at least a small impact on the administration, in that on June 8, 2016 Dr. Karpf sent a broadcast email to the UK physicians claiming, "We've Heard You" and that "we need to understand the issues." Hmmm, understand the issues? A good start would be to ask what the issues are. Of course unless you did that in some manner that provides anonymity, the only voices you will hear from are the people who have no issues.
- Then on June 24, 2016 Dr. Karpf made a presentation to his ultimate boss, the UK Board of Trustees Health Care Committee. This presentation included four slides (see Trustees Presentation) that contain somewhere on them the results of the 2016 Press-Ganey survey where "physician engagement" was calculated to be this obtuse 3.52 score. Unfortunately, on none of the four slides did Dr. Karpf include what is shown on slides 22 and 23 of the Press-Ganey Survey document (see Survey): that the score of 3.52 corresponds to a national ranking in the bottom 1%.
All of this unfortunately suggests that this hospital and even university administration, only wish to bury the results of this survey. Furthermore, the past history of this administration suggests that the University’s General Council is more likely to be consulted about these problems than the university physicians, faculty and staff. Hopefully the new Dean will take these survey results more seriously than Dr. Karpf has, but I am not going to hold my breath on that.
In conclusion, my Mom always told me, “If you can’t be part of the solution don’t be part of the problem.” In this vain I invite the physicians, faculty and staff reading this blog the opportunity to offer “constructive” suggestions for improving the morale and working environment in the hospital and College. I would be happy to pass them on to the BoT and administration.