Opinion Survey Yields Plans of Action

UCLA Health System's Employee Opinion Survey (EOS) was conducted a little over a year ago with 5,041 of the Health System's 7,817 staff members participating. Yet the true impact of the program is not in collecting information, but in putting that information to work making UCLA a better organization and a better place to work.

To that end, department heads at the Westwood UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital and Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital shared the survey data for their areas with managers and staff, seeking suggestions for how to build on areas of strength and address areas for improvement. This effort resulted in 317 departmentally written action plans detailing strategies for improving the workplace throughout the Health System in very specific ways.

Senior leadership is supporting departments in their efforts, including visiting with staff to share experiences and learn about the individual work settings. The visits are scheduled regularly in each department to hear firsthand the concerns of staff and answer their questions. These ongoing meetings allow Health System leaders to hear comments and suggestions from those who can do the most to create positive experiences for patients at UCLA.

The recurring themes in the action plans led to a set of five key initiatives representing the broad organizational objectives that grew out of the Employee Opinion Survey:

• Improve communication and partner with staff to better connect with patients and each other as members of the Health System community
• Develop people to create a culture of excellence that supports the highest quality of care and patient experience
• Develop systems that support delivering patient-centered care and service
• Enhance rewards and recognition
• Enable work-life balance

Look for future articles in this newsletter highlighting each of these key initiatives.