When Average Isn’t Good Enough

It’s tough to admit that you’re average, especially when comparative measures show your nearby competition is better than you. That, however, was the bitter tonic that Adventist Midwest Health had to swallow three years ago. Executives at the Hindsdale, IL-based four-hospital system serving the western suburbs of Chicago knew they were in the middle of the pack, or worse, on key metrics, including employee engagement and patient satisfaction.
“We made a decision that we didn’t want to be average. We wanted to be a world-class organization. We set a rather aggressive goal to be at the 90th percentile on all of our metrics by 2012,” says Don Russell, vice president of human resources at Adventist Midwest, explaining the health system’s decision to become an “employer of choice.”
Employee engagement was one of the first areas Adventist Midwest addressed, Russell says, because if employee engagement scores are low, other scores—especially patient satisfaction—will be, too.
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