Margo Richardson - APC Conference in Anaheim June 2014

Margo was quite humble as one of the first keynote speakers of the APC Annual Conference in Anaheim last month.  She said that she was (only) a staff chaplain at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, MN and if she and her team could do these  things, then any (mere) chaplain could too. 

They decided to lead by embracing the data and articulating their value...the value that we chaplains bring to healthcare.  Data is the language of ACA / Obamacare; it is all about patient-centered care and patient satisfaction.

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The research standards of Press Ganey Surveys  do not survey survivors. Chaplains spend most of their time with the survivors and this is feedback that NO ONE ELSE is gathering.

Would you recommend this hospital to others? 
So they took the initiative, formulated a proposal and got a small grant from their hospital's foundation.  They asked  question of survivors which is, in reality, the only population from which the hospital will ever get repeat business...the survivors.  They asked this question:

They asked some initial questions to formulate the proposal:

• ·       How do they want to be asked for information?  On phone, or grief support, or written? 
• ·       They got a $10K grant and started their survey
• ·       They formed a task force on grief and loss in collaboration with Dr, Rns, SW, etc.
• ·       They got champions – the Chief Nursing Officer in their case.
• ·       They did the phone interviews
• ·       Made recommendations as to improvements

They then made recommendations for improvements with the data

• Upgraded grief materials
• Got children’s grief materials
• Started a program of comfort quilts and involved several local communities, sewing circles, and churches
• Trained RNs to work with Chaplains for the right time to call and what to expect from chaplains
• They have an ongoing program of training new DR, C-level officers and Residents in how to work with Chaplains
• held themselves to a higher standard of care by being clear about what they did
• Hospitality tray for families sitting vigil
• Comfort quilts donated by church volunteers and sewing circles. They have about 500 deaths a year and when they run short of quilts they put out the word through their foundation and the blankets start arriving…
  

As a result of this clear articulation of the value of chaplaincy, their department  has grown by 1.5 FTEs – in a downturn - which is a miracle in itself.  In summary, she says that chaplains need to:

• Articulate our own value…in numbers and data and graphs – the language of healthcare.
• We need to interpret outcomes that the management will be able to follow.