May 5, 2023

The Innovation Accelerator drives our dynamic culture

This week brought the return of one of my favorite events: the Innovation Accelerator. Over two days at the eFactory, energetic minds from across the system came together to work on some of the biggest challenges we face as a health care system.

The 80 colleagues who participated brought their best ideas, made great pitches, and developed solutions. Ultimately, they presented their proposals to a panel of judges that included leaders from both CoxHealth and the community.

At the end of the event, we had four top projects; details will be coming soon as those projects get underway. All the projects in the room are worth consideration, and each one produced ideas that we will explore. I was so impressed by the proposals, I made sure to clear time in my schedule to think through the ideas we heard.

As I reflected, it struck me that along with the winning projects, the Innovation Accelerator also produces something even more important: a spirit of curiosity and collaboration that participants take back into their daily work.

When we infuse curiosity into the everyday fabric of our organization, we get stronger. The Innovation Accelerator is just the pistol that goes off at the start of the race – our teams take this mindset into the race that goes on 365 days a year.

On the collaboration front, the accelerator brings teams together unlike anything else in our organization. Colleagues work with professionals from other parts of the organization – sometimes with people they have never met. By the end of the event, they have created new relationships, and those relationships form a web of opportunity for the future.

The next time they have a problem they are trying to solve, it may be someone they met at the Innovation Accelerator who has the answer.

In addition to working on their projects, this year’s participants heard from a leader who spoke to something that affects us all in health care: the need to constantly adapt to meet the needs of those we serve.

Angie Jackson of Justice Furniture in Lebanon shared the story of how her company pivoted from their core business to making hospital gowns during the pandemic. By the time it was all over, Justice had made more than 750,000 gowns for health care workers.

In a crisis that completely disrupted their business, they took a chance. Angie says she was surprised at how nimble, creative and engaged the company’s leaders and employees were as they rose to the occasion. Their response and their innovation became points of pride for the family-owned business.

Hearing Angie’s story made me think about what CoxHealth can do to get out of our comfort zone to meet the needs of our community.

We work in a dynamic marketplace, and disruptions both large and small are an opportunity to think and react differently.

With the challenges we face in health care, we have to embolden our culture to step up and take big swings. We know we won’t hit a home run every time, but there is no room to be complacent.

The Innovation Accelerator encourages bold thinking, and it makes it a part of the fabric of our organization. As we continue our growth and progress, I am excited about what the innovation mindset can help us achieve!

Balancing ‘run the business’ and ‘change the business’

As we organize our leadership meetings at CoxHealth, we are working to divide our time between our daily work and planning for the future. We have focused on separating out “run the business” and “change the business” topics. We are deliberately taking time to consider the environment for health care and the trends across industries.

We recently heard from Dr. Tim Jones and Amanda Hedgpeth about change coming to health care nationwide – through retail giants and tech disruptors.

It can seem scary, but I don’t see it as a threat. It is a chance for health care to think more dynamically. Just like having great competition, it can ultimately make us better for those we serve.

Everyone we serve, from our customers to our colleagues, will seek the path of least resistance. Those who win in health care will be the ones who make it easy: easy for colleagues to do great work, and easy for patients to receive great care.

We are aggressively working on both of these things. For our teams, I want to make CoxHealth a place where it is easy to do the right thing. And for patients, we are working toward frictionless solutions that make accessing care as simple as the retail access offered by a company like Amazon.

It is vital for health care to adapt and not rest on our laurels. As retail giants and tech disruptors get into the health care space, they will force us to be more dynamic.

I am grateful for the work leaders like Amanda and Dr. Jones are doing to keep us ahead of trends and make sure our leadership teams are thinking about the realities of our environment.

When we discuss our future in meetings, every leader leans in and asks questions. That makes me feel good about the leadership maturity at the table. As we prepare for an ever-changing environment, I know we have the right people in the room, we have a nimble mindset, and we are well equipped to adapt to any disruption that comes our way.

New Minutes with Max video: Employer of Choice

In our latest video, I got to get out of the suit and throw on a pair of scrubs! I had the great opportunity to talk with my friend Ellen Gray, a perioperative educator in our surgery department. Ellen has served CoxHealth for 43 years and each day makes it a point to invest in her teams around her.

I admire Ellen for her dedication and commitment to both her colleagues and CoxHealth. People like Ellen keep us an employer of choice in the region! Watch our full conversation here and be sure to stay tuned for a special ending that saved me a trip to the grocery store.

Annual Diaper Drive success

In April we held our Annual Diaper Drive for families across the Ozarks. Through employee and community donations, we were able to collect more than 33,000 diapers, 11,000 more diapers than 2022!

I love seeing the generosity of our communities and teams. I am proud that CoxHealth is able to give back to our friends and family throughout the region. Check out CoxHealth’s Facebook page for photos of our teams during the drive!

Celebrating life-long careers at CoxHealth
On Cox Monett’s Facebook page, we got to highlight two colleagues who have been working at CoxHealth for over 40 years and are still serving!

Cindy Curts is celebrating 45 years of service with us and is often described as “the nicest person on earth.” “It’s a great honor and privilege to serve every patient and family member who walks through our doors at Cox Monett,” Cindy says. “I am truly blessed to be a part of the CoxHealth family.”

Karyn Shepard celebrated 42 years of service at CoxHealth and her birthday all in the same week! If you see her birthday celebration photo, you’d be just as jealous of her glasses as I am!

Thank you both for your continued dedication to your communities and helping CoxHealth continue to be the best for those who need us. Congratulations!

Voice of the Patient

Adapted from inpatient feedback at Cox Springfield: “My hospital experience was superior. The care given to me by the staff was excellent. Thank you!”

Thank you for all you do,

Max

Direct Line from Max Buetow for 5/5/2023