Town Hall update: "It's been a spectacular year"
Cincinnati Children’s senior leadership gave employees a summary of FY18’s accomplishments and a glimpse of FY19 goals at the July 9 Town Hall meeting.
Standing at the podium in the Sabin Auditorium, Steve Davis, MD, interim CEO, thanked staff for their hard work, which culminated in our rise to number 2 in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of children’s hospitals in the country.
Other accomplishments in a year where our daily hospital census exceeded 500 for 150 days, included:
- A 30-percent reduction in Serious Harm events
- A 30-percent reduction in OSHA overexertion injuries
- Sleep-related infant deaths below the baseline for the fifth consecutive year
- Magnet re-certification
- Number-two ranking in NIH funding and R01 grants
- Removal of $208 million in annual costs, putting us at more than 80 percent of our 2020 goal of $250 million
- More than $200 million in cost-savings passed on to families
Davis acknowledged that the past year’s success was helped by a more refined focus on:
- Enhancing the patient, family and employee experience
- Driving innovation and growth in programs, models and geographies
- Improving cost and affordability
We will continue to concentrate on these goals in FY19.
Opportunities ahead
As we move on from this highly successful year, there are many areas where we can improve and grow:
- Safety – We will streamline processes to help staff sustain excellence. Specifically, we are looking at ways to reduce staff injuries by building a culture of 200-percent accountability. If you see someone acting in an unsafe manner, e.g., walking while looking down at their phone, it is your responsibility to remind them about safe behaviors.
- Innovation and growth – We will strengthen and expand partnerships with other institutions and nurture and grow internal programs, e.g., the Colorectal Center; the Center for Stem Cell and Organoid Medicine (CuSTOM), genetics and genomics, etc.
- Patient and family experience – We have appointed Sam Hanke, MD, as our new Patient Experience Officer. For employees, we will continue to make Cincinnati Children’s an even better place to work, with programs aimed at enhancing career development and helping our leaders be great bosses.
- Cost and affordability – We will focus on ambulatory care and how we can take $50 million in price reduction on services that families shop for the most.
Davis expressed gratitude for every staff member’s contributions to a successful year. “We are number two because we put kids first,” he said. “And I am confident that we have the talent and drive to make Cincinnati Children’s the number one children’s hospital in the world. It is very much within our reach.”
