Recently, Missouri Baptist Sullivan Hospital (MBSH) completed a cohort for Project BEST, a new BJC HealthCare leadership program. Three system resource departments participated in Project BEST: Leroy Love with Operational Excellence, Russell Hoffman with Organizational Development and Lisa Kidin with Interprofessional Practice, Education and Research. A total of 11 MBSH leaders participated.   

“BJC HealthCare selected Project BEST as a strategic priority to empower leaders and their teams to obtain the tools and learnings that they need, so they can take on a project to propel their department and hospital’s Measuring Success Action Plan (MSAP) goals and priorities,” explains Sindi Haxhi, senior performance improvement consultant and enterprise leader for Project BEST. 

The acronym BEST stands for BJC, Empower, Simplify and Transform. Participants in the program addressed a project aligned with MBSH’s priorities and their department’s MSAP, guided by the BEST ideals. The projects are initiatives that leaders and teams have not been able to start due to time, resources or limited knowledge on successful implementation strategies. The goal for each project was to improve outcomes for patients and team members. 

Participants in the cohort were selected by leadership based on interest and previous discussions of needed initiatives at the hospital. The cohort progressed through three phases — preparation, activation, and sustainment — from June to October this year. 

“In the preparation phase, we have assessment conversations with each team to ensure the timing is right to set them up for success, then activation is when the participants are attending in-group sessions, doing Saba modules and trialing what they study,” explains Luke Pendleton, performance improvement manager and site OE partner for BEST. “Sustainment is the point when standard work is put in place, and this is the phase where we are monitoring the project to help the leaders make any necessary adjustments.” 

Frontline team members, led by participants in Project BEST, played a vital role in each of these projects. At MBSH, they partnered with their leaders though active involvement or by providing essential feedback to propel the projects. Ultimately, their commitment to carrying out these changes resulted in the success of the projects, creating a positive ripple effect among the leaders and their teams. 

The MBSH BEST Cohort completed six projects, which were presented to senior leadership: 

• Preventable Harm - Hyperglycemia led by med/surg manager, Tiffanie Alfermann, and food & nutrition supervisor, Emmy Stack  

• Preventable Harm – Sepsis (% Abx Delivered Within 1 Hour) led by ED manager, Nichole Bliss, and EMS manager, Aaron Turner  

• OR Utilization / First Case on Time Start led by OR manager, Laura Lewis, and OR assistant nurse manager, Melissa Brown. 

• Heart Imaging / Stress Test Volume led by cardiac rehab/EEG manager, Mike Whitaker, and radiology manager, Travis Little. 

• Hazardous Drug Management led by post-partum/OB manager, Michelle Koons. 

• Patient Experience – Understood Medicine Purpose (Inhalers) led by social services manager, Christopher Jeffrey, and pharmacy manager, Louis “Tip” Ettinger.  

Thanks to the Project BEST program, all six projects in the cohort achieved improvements beyond the target goals.

“I loved being able to take what we are currently working on in our department and correlating it with this project. It gave us an opportunity to collaborate with our team and come up with some great ideas and changes,” commented Brown. 

“I enjoyed getting together and listening to everyone's presentation. This allowed for others to see and compare different strategies to their own,” said Alfermann. 

“Getting to see the other team projects … and receiving feedback during the report outs worked well. The opportunity to meet with key stakeholders and get support/confirmation from an outside respected source was invaluable,” noted Little. 

Sindi Haxhi adds that the program allows all the participants the time and resources to solve problems. 

“It was all about applying those tools into the day-to-day and their projects, just taking that time,” says Haxhi. “Sixteen weeks sounds like a long period of time, but at the end of the program, they said, ‘I wish I could take all my projects through this timeline.’” 

If you are a leader interested in the program at MBSH, contact Luke Pendleton in the Performance Improvement department at [email protected].