Vision

Establishing a vision is the basis for a multi-year strategy. Once in place, you can create and define actionable goals that will then help deconstruct measurable objectives. With a goal, you can define the essential few and truly understand the priorities of your organization. Most importantly, it is only with a vision in place that you can actually implement those goals by measuring successful indicators.

Voice of the Customer

This is often a step that is missed, and as luck would have it, also tends to be the most critical. You must build your KPIs around the voice of the customer and engage your stakeholders in how you’re establishing your targeted programs. Establishing objectives is part of what we do as professionals, but understanding your customers and how those objectives are going to impact them should be a major concern.

The customer also needs to be thought of from two perspectives: the external customers, and your own internal stakeholders and departmental responsibilities. Nick Gaich, the speaker of this topic at the IDN Summit, asked attendees how they integrated the voice of the customer when developing their own KPIs. Karen Krug of Medstar Health explained, “We asked ourselves, ‘How could we support our customers within the supply chain? How are they having trouble supporting their patients, and in what way could we directly and positively affect that?’” In order to benchmark their goals, they gathered nurses’ pain points and satisfaction surveys from their internal customers and then developed a KPI just for the supply chain.

Attendees also heard of an IDN who reached out to Appleseed Healthcare Resources when they were faced with an overwhelming list of all their collected information. In the first step of developing their solution, AHR urged the organization to ask themselves, “What are the essential few that can have a cause and effect and advance the organization today? What are the variables we should be controlling that we can establish as a minimum target and a threshold?” In the end, they were able to use the voice of the customer as the destination metrics and established the KPIs with the stakeholders relative to where they wanted their destination to be

AHR’s 5 essential questions:

These are important questions that will provide insight on how to design your tactical plans. The last three in particular will help discern how culture and behavior plays a role in your process.

1. From a stakeholder perspective, what do you see as your leading three imperatives for the next three to five years?
2. Of these imperatives, how can an efficient supply chain management program contribute to your success as a leader in your organization?
3. How critical will the supply chain be in the success of your program?
4. How much involvement do you see yourself or your team playing in that exchange?
5. How open are you to work through creative new designs?

AHR suggests building your roadmap based on four areas: Culture, People, Policy and Process. With these aspects in mind, you can build your program based on the integration of the voice of the customer; establish the direction, objectives, and the metrics; and then target and synchronize with the organization. Finally, you can be held accountable and measure your success with numbers and statistics, - utilizing the KPIs. Still keep in mind that you can only measure the essential few because measuring everything is not a good goal, and it simply won’t garner the right results.

Establishing Culture

Often one thinks of culture as being the end of the process: when the plan is in place and working successfully, it is only then you will achieve your desired environment. However, as it was explained by an IDN Summit participant, that’s not the case. “If you don’t have the right folks on the right bus, in the right seat, you won’t even get to the process. You need to get the buy-in early from the people you have, as well as the accountability and ownership.”

Consider a culture where the relevance meter is low and the organization doesn’t feel your contribution will affect them personally and professionally. The map of your strategic plan and your potential KPIs will look much different from an organization with a very strong culture, willing to accept change at any moment, and more importantly, willing to engage with you. AHR has found that the latter is not always common, so how do you tackle the difficulty of mixing culture with the business discipline of KPIs? Francine Crockett of University Health System explained it’s Cross Functional Teams that will get your plan off the ground. “Think about who you are and how your own culture determines the management of your personal life. It is the same in business. Now in healthcare organizations, more often than not, we’re slow to move. That’s why it is so imperative to have Cross Functional Teams, because along with the major leaders, informal leaders influence individuals as well. You will have different people with different cultures, and therefore, different ways of doing things.”

The success of your KPIs should also have significance on a personal level as well, because success is directly connected to your legacy. Time and again, AHR has seen that witnessing the embodiment of your work and watching your team become successful on their own, while at the same time providing business discipline that meshes with the culture and behaviors, is the most rewarding challenge for their clients. Francine added, “The real legacy is if what you put in process is sustainable. Whether or not I’m there in my position, I want to know my work will continue.” What’s the best way to leave behind a legacy? Performing based on stakeholder inclusion. You will not only perform to the KPIs, but you’ll advance the organization based on the imperatives they have already established.

The process as a whole may feel overwhelming, but the good news is that as you start to deconstruct information into sizable chunks of work you can accomplish, it becomes very clear what you should measure against, how you can hold yourself accountable, and where your KPIs can lead your organization.

Utilizing KPIs to Impact to Culture, People, Policy & Process was based off the peer-to-peer workshop featured at the Spring 2009 IDN Summit in Orlando, Florida. The workshop closely examined the variety of benefits in utilizing KPIs to successfully implement MMIS applications and various supply chain optimization initiatives. Nick Gaich, of Appleseed Healthcare Resources, presented their research and engaged participates by sharing proven successes realized by utilizing KPIs to manage and monitor key supply chain optimization initiatives.