San Luis Valley Health: A Magnet for Excellent People

Recognizing that all great organizations are built upon a foundation of great people, San Luis Valley Health chose the first strategy of its 2014-15 Strategy Map to reflect just that: Magnet for Excellent People.

“It is a top priority for us to recruit and retain outstanding performers to the organization,” said Patti Thompson, Chief Clinical Officer at San Luis Valley Health.  Thompson and a group of the SLV Health Leadership Team developed this section of the Strategy Map.

One of the metrics that was measured as part of the first strategy was employee turnover.  San Luis Valley Health has improved in overall turnover over the past two years and has put measures in place to continue to do so.

“We picked turnover as an important strategy for Magnet for Excellent People because turnover is a national indicator that hospitals and most industries monitor to see the stability of their workforce,” explained Thompson.  “We want people who want to be here, who are engaged and embrace our culture.”

Part of that culture will be changed by employing Customer Learning Systems, a program that employees are undergoing to improve the customer service experience, as well as the culture around San Luis Valley Health. 

“We are looking forward to implementing structure around standards of how we treat our employees, implementing a more robust rewards and recognition program, routine patient rounding and increasing visibility from our Senior Leadership Team,” said Thompson.  Thompson said it is the hope of the organization that increased visibility will further open communication lines, leading to enhanced employee experience and engagement.

Thompson also noted that retaining positive people starts with taking care of your employees.  The organization will be implementing a leadership survey this fall so that employees can give feedback on their current leader and the feedback will be used to drive initiatives around improving overall employee engagement. 

Additionally, the organization will continue to review salaries and benefit packages to ensure that they are competitive with other salaries and benefit packages across the healthcare industry. 

“Of course, the main purpose of becoming a Magnet for Excellent People is to develop people that are going to want to do what is right for our patients and our community,” said Thompson.  “Our vision is to be Your Trusted Partner in Health.  By implementing these measures, we are further developing people who will be well-equipped to be those partners.”

This article is part of the series “Introducing our Strategy Map: 2014-15” for San Luis Valley Health.  This article focuses on the first of four strategies, Magnet for Excellent People, that San Luis Valley Health will focus on in the upcoming year.