Baldrige-Geisinger Project

Angela Bagnata, Sierra Kotwicki, Mo Moustafa, Samantha Perna, Danielle Pulver

December 10, 2017
SCM 474- Managing Quality
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Milestone P: Organizational Profile

a. Product Offerings:
(1) What are your main product offerings (see the note on the next page)
● Geisinger offers a variety of different services and health plans.
○ Health plans
○ Adolescent & Young Adult Medicine
○ Allergy
○ Anesthesia
○ Audiology
○ Bariatric Surgery
○ Cancer Institute
○ Cardiology
○ Cardiac Surgery
○ Colorectal Surgery
○ Cosmetics Program
○ Critical Care
○ Dental Medicine
○ Dermatology
○ Ear, Nose & Throat
○ Emergency Medicine
○ Endocrinology & Metabolism
○ Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO)
○ Fertility Center
○ Gastroenterology
○ Gynecology
○ Gynecologic Oncology
○ Heart Services
○ Hip & Knee Center
○ Imaging Services
○ Infectious Disease
○ Internal Medicine
○ Joint Replacement
○ Laboratory Medicine
○ Mammography
○ Maternal Fetal Medicine
○ Mental Health
○ Minimally Invasive Surgery
○ Mohs Surgery
○ Neonatology
○ Nephrology
○ Neurodevelopmental Pediatrics
○ Neuroscience Institute
○ Neurology
○ Neurosurgery
○ Obstetrics
○ Ophthalmology
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○ Orthopaedics
○ Osteoporosis
○ Pain Management
○ Palliative Medicine
○ Pediatrics (General)
○ Pediatric Allergy & Immunology
○ Pediatric Anesthesia & Sedation
○ Pediatric Cardiology
○ Pediatric Dental Surgery
○ Pediatric Dentistry
○ Pediatric Dermatology
○ Pediatric Endocrinology
○ Pediatric Gastroenterology
○ Pediatric General Surgery
○ Pediatric Genetics
○ Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
○ Pediatric Hospitalists
○ Pediatric Infectious Disease
○ Pediatric Intensive Care
○ Pediatric Interventional Radiology
○ Pediatric Nephrology
○ Pediatric Neurology
○ Pediatric Neuropsychology
○ Pediatric Neurosurgery
○ Pediatric Ophthalmology
○ Pediatric Orthopaedics
○ Pediatric Otolaryngology
○ Pediatric Plastic Surgery
○ Pediatric Psychology & Psychiatry
○ Pediatric Pulmonology
○ Pediatric Rehabilitation
○ Pediatric Rheumatology
○ Pediatric Transplant Surgery
○ Pediatric Trauma
○ Pediatric Urology
○ Pediatric Weight Management & Nutrition
○ Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery
○ Podiatry
○ Psychiatry
○ Pulmonary Medicine
○ Radiology
○ Rehabilitation
○ Rheumatology
○ Sleep Services
○ Spine Medicine
○ Sports Medicine
○ Surgery
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○ Thoracic Surgery
○ Transplant Surgery
○ Trauma Center
○ Urogynecology
○ Urology
○ Vascular Surgery
○ Weight Management Clinic
○ Women's Health
● They also offer advice and additional tips on how to live a healthy lifestyle
(2) What is the relative importance of each to your success? What mechanisms do you use to
deliver your products?
● Geisinger prides itself on always being there for their clients. They use standard operating
procedures (SOP’s) to assure that their products and services are always delivered to their
patients in the utmost professional manner.
b. Mission, Vision, and Values
(1) What are your stated mission, vision, and values?
● “Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine educates aspiring physicians and scientists
to serve society using a community-based, patient-centered, interprofessional and
evidence-based model of education that is committed to inclusion, promotes discovery and
utilizes innovative techniques.”
● Values: Integrity/Transparency, respect, compassion, collaboration, generosity,
partnership, discovery and scholarship, student friendly, community health, social
responsibility, best practices, quality, innovation, stewardship, communication, and
lifelong learning.
(2) What are your organization’s core competencies, and what is their relationship to your mission?
● Leadership. Geisinger's purpose: Everything we do is about caring – for our patients, our
members, our Geisinger Family of physicians and employees, and our communities. At
Geisinger we value:
○ Kindness – We strive to treat everyone as we would hope to be treated ourselves.
○ Excellence – We treasure colleagues who humbly strive for excellence.
○ Learning – We share our knowledge with the best and brightest to better prepare
the caregivers of tomorrow.
○ Innovation – We constantly seek new and better ways to care for our patients, our
members, our communities and the nation.
c. Workforce Profile
(1) What is your workforce profile?
● Geisinger currently employs more than 30,000 with a medical staff of more than 1,600
employed physicians.
(2) What recent changes have you experienced in workforce composition or in your needs with
regard to your workforce?
● In 2015, Geisinger implemented a $10 minimum wage for all employees.
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● The goal to hire 1,500 new employees since September 2016, they exceeded this goal,
hiring nearly 2,000 new employees.
(3) What are your workforce or employee groups and segments, the educational requirements for
different employee groups and segments, and the key drivers that engage them in achieving your
mission and vision?
● Clinical Informatics – Leverages practicing clinicians to apply health information,
technology and informatics to transform care to meet the needs of Geisinger patients,
clinicians and staff
● Geisinger in Motion – Provides mobile and innovative technologies to enable superior
patient care "on the go"
● Health Sciences Libraries – Provides patients and clinical teams with resources to assist
with health care decisions
● Data management – Provides consistent, accurate and actionable information to
Geisinger staff through the implementation of enterprise data warehouse and business
intelligence best practices.0-214-2102
(4) What are your organized bargaining units (union representation)? What are your organization’s
special health and safety requirements?
● Geisinger is required to follow all legal and federal health and safety requirements.

d. Assets
(1) What are your major facilities, technologies, and equipment?
● 13 hospital campuses, two research centers, and a 583,000-member health plan, all of
which leverage an estimated $12.7 billion positive impact on the Pennsylvania and New
Jersey economies.

e. Regulatory Requirements
(1) What is the regulatory environment under which you operate?
● As previously stated, Geisinger operated under all federal and legal health and safety
requirements.
(2) What are the key applicable occupational health and safety regulations; accreditation,
certification, or registration requirements; industry standards; and environmental, financial, and
product regulations.

“The relationships we build with our patients, members and the community are the foundation of
everything we do at Geisinger: no one relies on our integrity more than them. Each of the following
standards is vital to ensuring that we earn and maintain their trust every day.
● Billing, Coding and Documentation
● Business Confidentiality
● Conflicts of Interest
● Contracting, Procurement and Purchasing
● Entertainment, Gifts and Favors
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● Fair Competition and Antitrust Laws

● Outside Employment and Consulting Arrangements
● Recruiting and Compensation
● Referrals of Care and Service
● Environmental Stewardship
● Financial Reporting
● Fraud, Waste and Abuse
● Fundraising, Contributions and Solicitations
● Health Plan Operations
● Political Contributions and Policy Advocacy
● Record - Keeping, Record Retention and Record Destruction
● Research and Funding
● Tax - Exempt and Nonprofit Status
● Truthfulness and Cooperation
● Information Security
● Patient and Member Privacy
● Patient and Member Rights
● Professionalism, Eligibility, Debarment and Exclusion
● Quality of Care”
● Accountability and Discipline
● Alcohol, Firearms and Controlled Substances
● Compliance Education
● Organizational Policies and Procedures
● Personal Communications
● Protection of Personnel – Non - Retaliation
● Reporting Code of Conduct Violations and Other Compliance Concerns
● Responsibilities of Supervisors and Managers
● Harassment and Disruptive Behavior

P.2 Organizational Situation

a. Competitive Position
(1) Competitive Position: What is your competitive position? What are your relative size and
growth in your industry or the markets you serve? How many and what types of
competitors do you have?
● Markets: Medicinal Practices and Sales, Surgical, Educational
● 33 specialized departments
● 12 hospital locations
● Internships and Volunteer Work
● Major Competitor: Commonwealth Health, Urgent Care Centers
(2) Competitiveness Changes: What key changes, if any, are affecting your competitive
situation, including changes that create opportunities for innovation and collaboration, as
appropriate?
● Competitive Changes: Urgent Care Centers, Innovative Technology, and Over the
counter Medicines do affect their competitive situation
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● Comparative Data: Very few competitive and comparative information available

(3) Comparative Data: What key sources of comparative and competitive data are available
from within your industry? What key sources of comparative data are available from
outside your industry? What limitations, if any, affect your ability to obtain or use these
data?
● “Geisinger Health System is one of the country's "most wired" healthcare
companies with an electronic health record (EHR) in all outpatient clinics, patient
portal and other digital means of delivering care. The EHR database contains
information on more than three million patients, with data going back over twenty
years. These records are utilized by clinicians for both inpatient and outpatient
records with integrated electronic scheduling, clinical lab and radiology system”
(Geisinger.edu).
● Geisinger keeps up to date with external research
● You can use and obtain the data found
○ They provide operational data, financial information, utilization statics, and
other benchmarks for acute care hospitals
b. Strategic Context
(1) What are your key strategic challenges and advantages in the areas of business, operations,
societal responsibilities, and workforce?
● Competitive Advantages
○ Patient care experience
○ Internship Program
○ GenomeFIRST program
○ ADMI Mock MRI Scanner
○ Child Advocacy Center from Geisinger's Janet Weis Children’s Hospital
● Disadvantages
○ Distance between locations
○ Some locations not equipped for major surgeries
○ A lot of young and inexperienced staff
c . Performance Improvement System
(1) What are the key elements of your performance improvement system, including your
processes for evaluation and improvement of key organizational projects and processes?
● Improved outcome through treatments
● Multidisciplinary teams
● Policies to improve employees empowerment and gateway for comments and concerns
● Quality related councils and committees
● Dr / Practitioner evaluations
● Public performance reports (deficiency and satisfaction)

1.1 Senior Leadership

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1. Visions and Values- Geisinger puts into its efforts of being one of the nation's largest health
services organizations is very important to their vision as a company.
a. Their mission is to improve all aspects of a health care community. There are even
programs like Geisinger Proven Experience. This program is set to provide refunds
to patients if they are unhappy with their care experience.
2. Communication among leaders
a. They have many leaders of different vital departments:
● President and Chief Executive Officer
● Chief Operating Officer
● Chief Medical Officer
● Chief Strategic Partnership Officer
● Chief Compliance Officer
● Chief Sales and Marketing Officer Chief Financial Officer and Chief Actuary
● Chief Sales and Marketing Officer
● Associate Chief Information Officer
● Chief Population Health Officer
● Associate Chief Legal Officer and Regulatory Affairs Office
b. These are the higher level leaders that are placed strategically throughout their
organization to maximize the level of communication. Communication is vital through a firm
with many subsidiaries.
3. Mission and Organizational Performance
1. Geisinger constantly seeks new and better ways to care for their patients. Their
organizational structure backed by their mission statement, enables them to be a
successful company in a tough healthcare environment.
2. Appointment of different leaders and CEOs of subsidiaries of the company which
improves the organization as a whole.
3. A strong work culture with a focused minded team working to improve processes
is one of the main reasons why Geisinger is one of USA's top healthcare
companies.

Milestone 1: 1.1 Senior Leadership- How do your senior leaders lead the organization?

a. Vision and Values

1. Setting Vision and Values
How do senior leaders set your organization’s vision and values? How do senior leaders
deploy the vision and values through your leadership system, to the workforce, to key
suppliers and partners, and to customers and other stakeholders, as appropriate? How do
senior leaders’ personal actions reflect a commitment to those values?
○ Managers act as leaders by working with nurses and other doctors one-on-one through
group oriented training. Through demonstrations and other leadership techniques,
Geisinger instills in its employees the values of honesty, hard work, and compassion for
patients. Their vision of quality healthcare and innovative technology is posted on their
company website. They are also devoted to maintaining high quality partners and suppliers
that also value their same morals. Leaders show commitment to these company values by
constantly setting a good example in the workforce. Effective work production and good
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communication skills are also pinpointed in the interview process by leaders. The hiring
process in the first line of defense for the internal organization.
2. Promoting Legal and Ethical Behavior
How do senior leaders’ actions demonstrate their commitment to legal and ethical
behavior? How do senior leaders promote an organizational environment that requires
it?
○ Leaders are required to take leadership workshops and other cognitive training classes
that education the leader how to think and act ethically, and then also how to instill the
same ethical value into an employee. Leaders show compassion for patients and provide
them with extra commodities such as extra pillows, sleep masks, and lotions to keep the
patient beyond satisfied. All patients are treated equally regardless of race, religion,
gender, or any social status. If an employee is found guilty of acting unethically,
consequences are immediately put into place ranging from work probation and workshops
up to termination of employment.
B. Communication
How do senior leaders communicate with and engage the entire workforce and key
customers? How do they encourage frank, two-way communication, communicate key decisions
and needs for organizational change, taking a direct role in motivating the workforce toward high
performance and a customer and business focus, including by participating in reward and
recognition programs?
○ Information is provided through various links on the company website. There is a
page for supplier information, customer inquiries, potential customer information,
and even an internal data computer system used only by employees. The internal
data system is password protected, updated daily, and able to flow from one
Geisinger location to another with ease. Social media is also utilized. For example,
during the flu season, Geisinger promotes cheap or free flu shots to potential and
current customers on Facebook. Employees are also motivated to engage in
customer communication by offering surveys that evaluate the performance and
good nature of the doctor or practitioner. If constant feedback from customers is
positive for an employee, monetary or intrinsic rewards are awarded.
c. Mission and Organizational Performance

(1) Creating an Environment for Success How do senior leaders create an environment for
success now and in the future? How do they

● create an environment for the achievement of your mission and for organizational agility;
○ They are many opportunities for advancements in Geisinger. Through hard work
and consistent positive feedback from surveys, employees are often promoted to
managers, doctors, and other leadership positions. When hiring for a leadership
position, favorability is given to applicants that already have a work history with
Geisinger.
● cultivate organizational learning, learning for people in the workforce, innovation, and
intelligent risk taking;
○ Learning takes place every day. Employees work in groups of mixed skill levels
and learn from one another. Leaders show newer or less advanced employees how
to effectively achieve a goal one-on-one. Employees are left to make tough
decisions on their own so problem solving is also a focus on training.
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● create a workforce culture that fosters customer engagement; and

○ Employees are expected to treat patients with kindness and respect. Small talk is
encouraged and both physical and verbal surveys are provided to customers.
● participate in succession planning and the development of future organizational leaders?
○ Leaders separate employees into groups of hired hands and cadres. Employees earn
the unofficial title of cadre when they perform exceptional work and great social
skills and leadership. Leaders then mentors the cadre into a potential manager by
showing the employee more challenging work situations and opportunities.

(2) Creating a Focus on Action How do senior leaders create a focus on action that will
achieve the organization’s mission? How do senior leaders

● create a focus on action that will improve the organization’s performance;

○ Goals are physically written down each month or each day depending upon the
goal. All employees are expected to act accordingly in cooperation with the
specified goals and guidelines listed, but also internally follow company morals
and values.
● identify needed actions;
○ Daily goals and responsibilities are posted for all employees to view each day in
their employee database.
● in setting expectations for organizational performance, include a focus on creating and
balancing value for customers and other stakeholders; and
○ Quality of work and patient care is the most important value for the company. Their
mission, goals, and values are listed on their company website and practiced by
employees.
● demonstrate personal accountability for the organization’s actions?
○ Consequences are given when an employees is neglectful, unethical, or consistently
unknowledgeable. Consequences include cut hours, required training, probation,
decreased work responsibilities, and possible termination. Rewards are also given
when an employee performs exceptionally.
1.2 Governance and Societal Responsibilities: How do you govern your organization and
fulfill your societal responsibilities? (50 pts.)

a. Organizational Governance

(1) Governance System How does your organization ensure responsible governance? How
does your governance system review and achieve the following?

● Accountability for senior leaders’ actions

● Accountability for strategic plans
● Fiscal accountability
● Transparency in operations
● Selection of governance board members and disclosure policies for them, as appropriate
● Independence and effectiveness of internal and external audits
● Protection of stakeholder and stockholder interests, as appropriate
● Succession planning for senior leaders
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○ There are several review committees in place to help evaluate senior leaders and
keep them accountable for their actions as well as their strategic plans. They have
a Corporate Integrity Program, and hold regular and effective training and
education of all researchers and staff. There are ongoing internal monitoring and
auditing procedures, and enforcement of disciplinary standards for non-
compliance. Geisinger’s officers and management maintain internal controls
designed to provide reasonable assurance that the organization meets financial and
other data reporting obligations and objectives. The Finance Department reports
costs under GAAP, and expenses are reported in timely fashion, with proper
authority and documentation. If estimates must be made in their financials, it is
necessary to use the best possible estimate regardless of impact on other measures,
departments, or results. There are 15 members on the appointed Board of Directors,
and all of them are on other various subcommittees (except Pam
Kehaly, who lives in California). Many audits are done by internal subcommittees,
however most external audits are done on financials. The Geisinger Health Plan
Code of Conduct outlines Commitments to each group of Stakeholders the
company has:
■ Members- providing quality, affordable health care; access to credentialed
providers, customer service, and a complaint and grievance process
■ Health Plan Employees- work setting which treats all employees with
fairness, dignity, and respect
■ Affiliated Providers- network management resources that supports
delivering quality health services and bringing efficiency and cost-
effectiveness to healthcare
■ Regulators- compliance with rules, regulations, and sound business
practices is woven into the corporate culture; responsibility to aggressively
self-govern and monitor adherence to regulations
■ Contracted Business Partners- fair competition among prospective business
partners and the sense of responsibility required in a sound business
relationship
■ Communities- understanding the particular needs of the communities
served and arranging and managing quality, cost-effective health services
for these communities
(2) Performance Evaluation How do you evaluate the performance of your senior leaders
and your governance board? How do you use performance evaluations in determining executive
compensation? How do your senior leaders and governance board use these performance
evaluations to advance their development and improve both their own effectiveness as leaders and
that of your board and leadership system, as appropriate?

● Standardized performance evaluations are given to leaders monthly, semiannually,

or annually depending on the position. The factors assed are quality of work
performed, quality of social communication, and satisfaction of customers. There
is also a performance evaluation on the training program itself to double check the
efficiency of the overall hospital since training coincides with effectiveness of
employees.
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b. Legal and Ethical Behavior

(1) Legal and Regulatory Compliance How do you address and anticipate legal, regulatory,
and community concerns with your products and operations? How do you

● address any adverse societal impacts of your products and operations;

● anticipate public concerns with your future products and operations; and
● prepare for these impacts and concerns proactively, including through conservation of
natural resources and effective supply-chain management processes, as appropriate?
○ Performing legal and ethical actions are necessary for the hospital to operate. Codes
of conduct and frequently encountered regulations are posted in offices and other
work stations throughout the hospital. Leaders and managers are also required to
attend daily workshops ad meetings about new policies and procedures put into
place by both the hospital and the government. Documentations are also made for
the record on almost every action an employee makes in case a lawsuit was to be
filed.
What are your key compliance processes, measures, and goals for meeting and surpassing
regulatory and legal requirements, as appropriate? What are your key processes, measures, and
goals for addressing risks associated with your products and operations?

● All products and hazardous areas are labeled with precautionary warnings. Proper
disposal bins are placed throughout the hospital to ensure disposal laws are
followed and employees and customers are safe from harm. In the employee
handbook, all rules and regulations are listed for employee reference. High risk is
unwanted in this industry because all outcomes affect all stakeholders.
(2) Ethical Behavior How do you promote and ensure ethical behavior in all interactions?
What are your key processes and measures or indicators for enabling and monitoring ethical
behavior in your governance structure; throughout your organization; and in interactions with your
workforce, customers, partners, suppliers, and other stakeholders? How do you monitor and
respond to breaches of ethical behavior?

● There is a code of conduct posted throughout the hospital that employees are expected to
follow at all times. It is visible to both employees and patients so it is important that these
guidelines are followed to show a good and honest public image. Performance is evaluated
by leaders in team projects. If requirements are not met, additional training is required. If
an employee is found to be unethical, actions including loss of responsibility, limited
resource accessibility, training, and possible termination could be enforced.
c. Societal Responsibilities

(1) Societal Well-Being How do you consider societal well-being and benefit as part of your
strategy and daily operations? How do you contribute to the well-being of your environmental,
social, and economic systems?

● Employees are entitled to high quality health care as a benefit for employment.
Encouraging a healthy lifestyle for employees increases public image for the hospital.
Patients will see happy, healthy, and fit practitioners as a sign of great service because
humans are naturally drawn to what physically attracts them. Health awareness programs
are also presented at the hospital for free on certain days to promote healthy living for the
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community. Geisinger also donates to Bloomsburg University, a major component of the

town, by donating resources, education, and other services to the school.

(2) Community Support How do you actively support and strengthen your key communities?
What are your key communities? How do you identify them and determine areas for organizational
involvement, including areas that leverage your core competencies? How do your senior leaders,
in concert with your workforce, contribute to improving these communities?

● Geisinger holds and supports multiple charitable fundraising events and solicitations. They
and their employees must comply with all local, state, and federal laws regarding these
events. The organization’s registration, reporting, and record-keeping procedures must be
followed at all times for the event to comply with Geisinger polity. All charitable
fundraising activities and solicitations must remain truthful, accurate and complete to be
associated with the Geisinger name or any employee representing Geisinger. Their
Development Office handles solicitation and acceptance of financial or in kind donations
on behalf of Geisinger.

Milestone 2:

2.1 Strategy Development: How do you develop your strategy?

a. Strategy Development Process
(1) Strategic Planning Process: how do you conduct your strategic planning? What are the key
process steps? Who are the key participants? What are your short- and longer-term
planning horizons? How are they addressed in the planning process? How does your
strategic planning process address the potential need for transformational change and
prioritization of change initiatives; and organizational agility, including operational
flexibility?
● Every year they have strategic planning aligned to specific goals
● The key participants are the leadership team and the board of directors
● They are addressed by being able to instill profit-and-loss responsibility in Geisinger's
various operating units.
● Geisinger assures that their goals meet innovative technology and their patients needs
● Additional patient care revenues and margins from non-Geisinger health plans were the
key to Geisinger's explosive revenue growth and profitability

(2) Innovation: how does your strategy development Process stimulate and incorporate
innovation? How do you identify strategic opportunities? How do you decide which
strategic opportunities are intelligent risks to pursue? What are your key strategic
opportunities?
● In March 2001 Geisinger was facing operating losses in both its hospitals and
physician group
● Geisinger had become too integrated. The lines between its three key businesses—
health plan operations, physician care, and hospital services—were blurred
● They converted their health plan from an HMO to a PPO to broaden patients'
choices
● Recruited clinical leadership and procedure-oriented specialists
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● Used its regional dominance on the physician and hospital markets to negotiate
more favorable reimbursement rates with non-Geisinger health plans.
● Further grew its hospital network to enhance its negotiating position with payers
● Used its increased cash flow and "windfall profits" from its Medicare Advantage
(MA) plan to fund innovation in the relationship between its health plan and
physician group

(3) Strategy Considerations: How do you collect and analyze relevant data and develop
information for your strategic planning process? In this collection and analysis, how do
you include these key elements of risk?
● Your strategic challenges and strategic advantages
● Potential changes in your regulatory and external business environment
● Potential blind spots in your strategic planning process and information
● Your ability to execute the strategic plan
○ Geisinger does an excellent job of accomplishing their goals as stated
above. They collect data through research of what works and does not work
well for patients. “Geisinger "found the right balance between
entrepreneurial effort and clinical discipline in managing their physician
groups," in part by rebalancing its business units to foster clinical
productivity and curbing unnecessary care;” (Lessons from a CEO). They
do include all of those key elements of risk. They use an IT system called a
Unified Data Architecture (UDA). This allows Geisinger to integrate big
data into their existing data analytics and management systems. It tracks
and analyzes patient outcomes, to correlate their genomic sequences with
clinical care, and to visualize healthcare data across cohorts of patients and
networks of providers.

(4) Work systems and core competencies: How do you decide which key processes will be
accomplished by your workforce and which by external suppliers and partners? How do
those decisions consider your core competencies and the core competencies of potential
suppliers and partners? What are your key work systems? How do you make work system
decisions that facilitate the accomplishment of your strategic objectives? How do you
determine what future organizational core competencies and work systems you will need?
● Geisinger's priorities are patient and member experience, Geisinger family,
markets, and financial health. Using these properties is how they decide which key
processes will be accomplished by the workforce. Geisinger’s main goal is a
satisfied patient that is well taken care of.
● Geisinger does have an action plan which can be found below. It does state the
action item, the status of the program, and a summary.
○ https://www.geisinger.org/-/media/OneGeisinger/pdfs/ghs/about-
geisinger/chna/gcmc/gcmc-chna-action-plan.ashx?la=en
● Their resources are optimized and prioritized toward important healthcare issues
● They listen to and learn from their patients, members and communities to make
sure goals are meet to their needs

b. Strategic Objectives
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(1) Key Strategic Objectives: What are your organization’s key strategic objectives and
timetable for achieving them? What are your most important goals for these strategic
objectives? What key changes, if any, are planned in your products, customers and markets,
suppliers and partners, and operations?
● Priorities are: Patient and member experience, Geisinger family, Markets, and
Financial Health
● Those goals are ongoing and can always be improved.
● There is a warehouse in Elysburg, PA where most of the supplies for the hospital
locations are sent to. The supplies are organized into isles and then picked based
off the item the hospital has ordered and then shipped off to the hospitals to be put
away and organized. They do not have key changes, but the orders are always
different depending on what the hospitals need for each floor. It was discussed in
case of a weather emergency the hospitals will be notified beforehand to order more
supplies.

2) Strategic Objective Considerations: How do your strategic objectives achieve appropriate

balance among varying and potentially competing organizational needs? How do your strategic
objectives address your strategic challenges and leverage your core competencies, strategic
advantages, and strategic opportunities; balance short- and longer-term planning horizons; and
consider and balance the needs of all key stakeholders?
● They achieve appropriate balance by focusing on their main priorities, Patient and
member experience, Geisinger family, Markets, and Financial Health.
● Each goal has sub points that can be divided into short or long term goals to achieve,
however Geisinger believes that just because one of those smaller points is
achieved, it doesn’t mean that room for improvement disappears. Continuous
improvement must be used to protect interests of all stakeholders.

2.2 Strategy Implementation: How do you implement your strategy?

a. Action Plan Development and Deployment

(1) Action Plans: What are your key short- and longer-term action plans? What is their
relationship to your strategic objectives? How do you develop your action plans?
● There is an action plan listed online that I am going to post below. The key short
and longer term action plans are improving access to healthcare, addressing needs
related to behavioral health and substance abuse, and improving healthy behaviors.
● This relates to the strategic objectives because this relates to their patients and the
Geisinger family.
● This action plan is developed by using a community health needs assessment

(2) Action Plan Implementation: How do you deploy your action plans? How do you deploy
your action plans to your workforce and to key suppliers and partners, as appropriate, to
ensure that you achieve your key strategic objectives? How do you ensure that you can
sustain the key outcomes of your action plans?
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● The action plans are deployed by educating their patients and employees about their
health goals. They have a lot of member benefits. They offer health and wellness
programs that are available by phone, online, or in person.
● An example of an action plan for improving access to healthcare they have patients
education materials. They implement them by “1. In collaboration with community
partners, create access for patient friendly written and web-based materials,
including patient education materials. 2. Increase awareness and care coordination”
(GCMC).
● They rest are listed in this link
○ https://www.geisinger.org/-/media/OneGeisinger/pdfs/ghs/about-
geisinger/chna/gcmc/gcmc-chna-action-plan.ashx?la=en

(3) Resource Allocation: How do you ensure that financial and other resources are available
to support the achievement of your action plans while you meet current obligations? How
do you allocate these resources to support the plans? How do you manage the risks
associated with the plans to ensure your financial viability?
● They have an inventory of resources and they implement it by, completing an
inventory of available resources within the community to address the top
community needs identified by the community health needs assessment. They also
increase access to low income residents.
● They allocate these resources throughout their health care plans

(4) Workforce Plans: What are your key Workforce plans to support your short- and longer-term
strategic objectives and action Plans? How do the plans address potential impacts on your
workforce members and any potential changes in workforce capability and capacity needs?
● The key workforce plans are are improving access to healthcare, addressing needs
related to behavioral health and substance abuse, and improving healthy behaviors.
● These plans do impact the workforce. Improving access to healthcare makes -
Affordable healthcare, Accessibility of providers, Resource awareness and health
literacy (care coordination). Addressing needs related to behavioral health is for
policy advocacy and Funding and sustainability of programs. Improving healthy
behaviors is for health concerns related to lifestyle.

(5) Performance Measures: What key performance measures or indicators do you use to track the
achievement and effectiveness of your action plans? How does your overall action plan
measurement system reinforce organizational alignment?
● There was nothing stated on how they track their action plan

(6) Performance Projections: For these key Performance Measures or indicators, what are your
PerforMance Projections for your short- and longer-term planning horizons? What is your
projected performance on these action plan measures or indicators compared with your projections
of the performance of your competitors or comparable organizations and with key benchmarks, as
appropriate? If there are gaps in performance against your competitors or comparable
organizations, how do you address them in your action plans?
● As stated on Geisinger.org, “Independent reviewers measure our progress and let us know
where we stand compared to the competition. The National Committee for Quality
 17

Assurance (NCQA) is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving healthcare

quality. They look at the quality of care and customer service our members receive. Top
10 national rankings from NCQA. We rank in the top 10 nationally for:
○ Adults’ Access to preventative/Ambulatory Health Services (Medicare PPO,
Medicaid)
○ Comprehensive Diabetes Care – Blood Pressure Control (Commercial CCPPO)
○ Controlling High Blood Pressure (Commercial HMO)
○ Adult BMI Assessment (Commercial CCPPO)
○ Monitoring kidney disease in members with diabetes (Geisinger PPO)
○ Weight assessment and counseling for children and adolescents (Geisinger PPO)
○ Adolescent Immunizations (Commercial CCPPO)”

b. Action Plan Modification: How do you establish and implement modified action plans if
circumstances require a shift in plans and rapid execution of new plans?
● Geisinger last updated their action plan in 2015. It does not state about how they modify it
but they do have many new programs listed on their action plan. They do meet to talk about
accomplishing their goals based on their patients and innovation.
● They also have a quality management plan which is stated that, “The Geisinger Health
System’s mission is to enhance the quality of life through an integrated health service
organization based on balanced patient care, education, research, and community service.
GHP Family supports the overall mission of Geisinger Health System. The GHP Family
Quality Management (QM) Plan provides the structure and processes for continuously
monitoring, analyzing, and improving the clinical care and services provided under GHP
Family products in order to further that mission. The scope of the QM Plan is
comprehensive in nature, allowing for improvement, and is consistent with the DPW’s
goals related to access, availability, and quality of care. A copy of the complete QM Plan
can be requested from GHP Family's Quality Improvement Department” (The Health
Plan).

Milestone 3:
3.1 Voice of the Customer: How do you obtain information from your customers?
a. Customer Listening
(1) Current Customers - How do you listen to, interact with, and observe customers to obtain
actionable infor-mation? How do your listening methods vary for different customers,
customer groups, or market segments? How do you use social media and web-based
technologies to listen to customers, as appropriate? How do your listening methods vary
across the customer life cycle? How do you seek immediate and actionable feedback from
customers on the quality of products, customer support, and transactions?
● Geisinger has established listening methods same for all segments and customer
groups. Their website is frequently used to hear feedback from patients. Geisinger
also utilizes social media. They promote Geisinger’s award winning health and
safety programs to bring in new clients. Different methods of communication are
used for different groups and segments. For example, while social media is used
 18

to attract new younger customers, Geisinger gives a more personal feel to older
generations with calls and flyers showcasing their service offerings right to their
homes.
(2) Potential Customers How do you listen to potential customers to obtain actionable
information? How do you listen to former customers, potential customers, and competitors’
customers to obtain actionable informa-tion on your products, customer support, and transactions,
as appropriate?
● Geisinger has former-satisfaction surveys that are given to all past patients, for
them to evaluate their experience, and give address any recommendations or
concerns to staff. To get potential patient information, Geisinger pulls research
from current, past, and competitor patients. They then use this information to
evaluate themselves and see which areas they can improve on to bring in new
business. Information they pull from competitors include public ratings and
reviews.
b. Determination of Customer Satisfaction and Engagement
(1) Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction, and Engagement - How do you determine customer
satisfaction, dissatisfac-tion, and engagement? How do your determination methods
differ among your customer groups and market segments, as appropriate? How do
your measurements capture actionable information to use in exceeding your
customers’ expectations and securing your customers’ engagement for the long term?
Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction/Engagement
● The division of informatics data analytics approach to improve patient experience
and outcomes.
● Contact pages on websites
● “Geisinger in Motion promotes the effective use of technology to initiate patient
and provider engagement across a distributed healthcare delivery network. We
work collaboratively with Geisinger programs and clinical departments, to
promote a unified communication strategy”
● MyGeisinger Patient Portal-allows Geisinger patients to view their chart, talk to
their doctor and better manage their healthcare. Established in 2001, MyGeisinger
has over 350,000 patients who better manage their healthcare through access to
their providers' notes through OpenNotes®, test results and hospital stay
information. They can easily communicate with their provider through secure
messaging and schedule appointments online. The MyChart app allows patients
to access the portal from a smart device.
● Patient Mobile Technology - Geisinger in Motion works to apply technology to
provide patients with the tools they need to manage their care anywhere anytime.
Solutions are available on both Geisinger-provided devices and "bring your own
device" models to allow for maximum distribution and are built under the core
principles of ensuring the security of patient data. Usability is based on user
 19

preferences and facilitating effective care communications. Patient mobile

solutions include:
● iPads during some hospital stays to keep patients engaged, informed, connected
and entertained throughout the care process.
● Text messages to improve health such as appointment reminders, weight
management and diabetes management
● Mobile apps such as prescription refills (iRefill) and procedure prep (Easy Prep:
Colonoscopy). Patients can also provide feedback on their experience through the
ProvenExperience™ mobile app.
● eBooks, created for patients to access trustworthy education about their condition
on their mobile devices, and iTunes University courses that provide a full mobile
patient engagement solution covering topics like lumbar spine surgery.
● Clinician smart device program - Geisinger's clinical teams are always on the go,
whether that is moving to the next patient in the hospital, or receiving an urgent
call at home. The smartphone program gives them access to the electronic health
record and secure texting so care decisions and patient and caregiver
communications do not have to wait until a return to their office. Untethering the
care team from stationary devices to adapt to our ever-changing mobile lifestyles
ensures care can be delivered when it is needed, whether as part of a consultation
needed during a surgery or to ensure timely discharge by a clinical care team.
● GeisingerConnect - This provider portal allows non-Geisinger providers to have
visibility into their patients’ treatment while at Geisinger, ensuring continuity of
care. More than 700 provider practices and 5,000 users have access to this patient
care tool.
● Post-Appointmnt Surveys
(2) Satisfaction Relative to Competitors How do you obtain information on customers’
satisfaction with your organization relative to other organizations? How do you obtain
information on your customers’ satisfaction
● Relative to their satisfaction with your competitors; and relative to the satisfaction
of customers of other organizations that provide similar products or to industry
benchmarks, as appropriate?
● Data analytics can look at awards and ratings of competitors in general and specific
areas Ie Geisinger is ranked high performing and #15in PA for regionally Ranked
Hospitals by US News Health
● National ranking and overall scores given, including patient experience ratings
(https://www.geisinger.org/health-plan/news-
releases/2016/11/11/17/25/geisinger-gold-ranked-for-quality-care-and-
performance)
3.2 Customer Engagement: How do you engage customers by serving their needs and
building relationships?
 20

a. Product Offerings and Customer Support

(1) Product Offerings - How do you determine product offerings? How do you determine
customer and market needs and requirements for product offerings and services; identify and
adapt product offerings to meet the requirements and exceed the expectations of your customer
groups and market segments; identify and adapt product offerings to enter new markets, to attract
new customers, and to create opportunities to expand relationships with current customers, as
appropriate?
● Product offerings can differ from location to location. To determine customer and market
needs, research is done to look at previous data from various locations; then using that
data to determine what products/services might be needed in each location. Geisinger
exceeds customer expectations everyday, adding new services, technology, and cutting
edge research to better help their customers.
(2) Customer Support - How do you enable customers to seek information and support? How do
you enable them to conduct business with you? What are your key means of customer support,
including your key communi-cation mechanisms? How do they vary for different customers,
customer groups, or market segments? How do you determine your customers’ key support
requirements, and deploy these requirements to all people and processes involved in customer
support?
● Geisinger has established a customer support page called MyGeisinger. It has been
designed as a complaint page, where patients can leave their concerns and complaints,
along with contact information so that they can get a personal response. Additionally
Geisinger had a compliment page where patients can post anything from ideas to improve
care, to specific doctor evaluations. (Doctor’s get additional pay-perks based off of
evaluations from patients)

(3) Customer Segmentation - How do you determine your customer groups and market segments?
How do you use information on customers, markets, and product offerings to identify current and
anticipate future customer groups and market segments; consider competitors’ customers and
other potential customers and markets in this segmentation; and determine which customers,
customer groups, and market segments to emphasize and pursue for business growth?
● Customers can be segmented in a number of different ways. They can be grouped by age,
health problems, race, geographical region, etc. Geisinger uses information to evaluate
and research new techniques, along with possible opportunities. Staying ahead of the
competition is obviously a main concern for Geisinger, however they keep patient
information and research confidential, and use it to their advantage, for industry changing
research; to serve their current and future patients. This helps maintain and grow
Geisinger as a business.
b. Customer Relationships
 21

(1) Relationship Management - How do you build and manage customer relationships? How do
you market, build, and manage relationships with customers to acquire customers and build
market share; manage and enhance your brand image; retain customers, meet their requirements,
and exceed their expectations in each stage of the customer life cycle; and increase their
engagement with you? How do you leverage social media to manage and enhance your brand and
to enhance customer engagement and relationships, as appropriate?
● Mainly through patient doctor interaction, previous methods of contact mentioned, data
analytics determines appropriate marketing methods and targets. social media used to
engage on issues and events rather than individual attention
(3) Complaint Management - How do you manage customer complaints? How do you resolve
complaints promptly and effectively? How does your management of customer complaints enable
you to recover your customers’ confidence, enhance their satisfaction and engagement, and avoid
similar complaints in the future?
● On complaint, compliment page etc, you can request to be contacted back at specific times
● Under corporate policies there is a patient rights and responsibilities page (below), have a
complaint and grievance process;
○ A patient has the right to prompt resolution of complaints and/or grievances from
either the patient or his or her family.
○ A patient has the right to access protective and advocacy services.
○ A patient has the right to effective communication, from health care personnel, in
a manner that meets his or her oral and written communication needs.
○ A patient has the right, without recrimination, to voice complaints regarding his or
her care, to have those complaints reviewed, and, when possible, resolved.
Milestone 4:
a. Performance measurement
(1) PerforMance Measures - How do you track data and information on daily operations and
overall organizational PerforMance? How do you select, collect, align, and integrate data and
information to use in tracking daily operations and overall organizational performance; and track
progress on achieving strategic objectives and action plans? What are your key organizational
performance measures, including key short- and longer-term financial measures? How frequently
do you track these measures?
● GHP came out with a program that will help employees, Pay-for-Quality payment is to
encourage and promote a focus on exceeding all quality of care standards for our GHP
patients.
● The pay-for-quality program was designed to help GHP Family monitor the accessibility
and performance of the identified providers in the Health Plan’s provider network. It was
implemented in 2012 and has made it convenient to.
(2) Comparative Data: How do you select comparative data and information to support fact-based
decision making?
 22

● GHP uses different types of surveys to measure performance of their organization and
others.
● These results show that GHP is proactive in using customer data to relate to their patients
needs and priorities to achieve maximum customer service quality against other
competitors.
(3) Customer Data – How do you select voice of the customer and market data and information?
How do you select voice of the customer and market data and information (including aggregated
data on complaints and, as appropriate, data and information from social media) to build a more
customer-focused culture and to support fact-based decision making?
● Geisinger uses customer data to improve performance with consumer assessments with
questions like these:
○ Communication with physicians
○ Customer service satisfaction
○ Coordination of care
○ Rating of healthcare quality
○ Overall rating of personal doctor
○ Access to necessary prescription medication
○ Flu vaccinations
● These results show that GHP is proactive in using customer data to relate to their their
patients needs and priorities to achieve maximum customer service quality.
(4) Measurement Agility - How do you ensure that your performance measurement system can
respond to rapid or unexpected organizational or external changes?
● Geisinger Health System is a physician-led, not-for- profit, integrated delivery system
headquartered in Danville, Pennsylvania. This means that they are able to reach their
neighboring locations easy in northeast Pennsylvania at a timely rate. And also it being
physician led they are able to make quick adjustments through daily practices.
○ Geisinger puts effort into keeping its company agility at a high rate. Agility enables
companies to earn an additional 2 – 4 % because they can make a hundred small
adjustments every day to reduce operating costs and increase revenues. With
Geisinger putting effort into its 10+ locations, it is imperative that they keep up to
date with these positive changes.
b. Performance Analysis and Review - How do you review your organization’s performance and
capabilities?
(1) How do you use your key organizational performance measures, as well as comparative and
customer data, in these reviews? What analyses do you perform to support these reviews and
ensure that conclusions are valid? How do your organization and its senior leaders use these
reviews to assess organizational success, competitive performance, financial health, and progress
on achieving your strategic objectives and action plans; and respond rapidly to changing
organizational needs and challenges in your operating environment, including any need for
transformational change in organizational structure and work systems? How does your governance
 23

board review the organization’s performance and its progress on strategic objectives and action
plans, if appropriate?
● They use different sources of medias, surveys, and committees to track progress. Consumer
and employee assessments are used to review the organization's performance and
capabilities they use this data to assess goals, and plans to excel within their industries.
● National Committee for Quality Assurance is a private, non-profit organization dedicated
to improving healthcare quality. Groups like these are hired by GHP to work within their
industry and promote goal oriented changes.
c. Performance Improvement

(1) Future Performance – How do you project your organization’s future performance? How do
you use findings from performance reviews (addressed in 4.1b) and key comparative and
competitive data in your projections? How do you reconcile any differences between these
projections and those developed for your key action plans (addressed in 2.2a [6])?
● Like many companies Geisinger uses past data to help project future performance. As
stated previously Geisinger enables a number of methods to go about collecting this data.
Changed within the data are recorded promptly. Not all changes are signs of errors, so
careful research is done to see what might have caused the variation.
(2) Continuous Improvement and Innovation – How do you use findings from performance
reviews (addressed in 4.1b) to develop priorities for continuous improvement and opportunities
for innovation? How do you deploy these priorities and opportunities to work group and
functional-level operations; and when appropriate, to your suppliers, partners, and collaborators to
ensure organizational alignment?
● As a healthcare provider, Geisinger must always looks for new ways to innovate. Research
is always being conducted in new medical fields, along with on new and emerging
technologies. When it comes to initiating these opportunities into function-level operations,
there is always a test period to work out any kinks that may arise, in simulated situations,
to assure that there is a standard protocol if something were to go wrong.

4.2 Information and Knowledge Management: How do you manage your information and
your organizational knowledge assets?

a. Data and Information

(1) Quality - How do you verify and ensure the quality of organizational data and information?
How do you manage electronic and other data and information to ensure their accuracy and
validity, integrity and reliability, and currency?
● All data is electronically stored for accurate records. This system is then protected by a
security software that is guaranteed to protect all patient and employee documents. To
further keep records organized and accurate, all paperwork is dated and signed so it is easy
 24

to find who and when a document was read or signed. This electronic storage of data is
shared with employees throughout the hospital so information is available immediately.
Documents are password protected and updated often.
(2) Availability – How do you ensure the availability of organizational data and information? How
do you make needed data and information available in a user-friendly format and timely manner
to your workforce, suppliers, partners, collaborators, and customers, as appropriate? How do you
ensure that your information technology systems are user-friendly?

b. Organizational Knowledge

(1) Knowledge Management – How do you build and manage organizational knowledge? How do
you collect and transfer workforce knowledge; blend and correlate data from different sources to
build new knowledge; transfer relevant knowledge from and to customers, suppliers, partners, and
collaborators; and assemble and transfer relevant knowledge for use in your innovation and
strategic planning processes?
● Data has been collected and stored since the hospital’s existence. Information is stored in
a computer system which is shared to authorized employees. This data is highly protected.
Information is collected directly from patients, but also from the company’s customer
feedback page and competitor analysis.
(2) Best Practices – How do you share best practices in your organization? How do you identify
organizational units or operations that are high performing? How do you identify their best
practices for sharing and implement them across the organization, as appropriate?
● High operating departments are discovered through different assessments such as the
Student Learning Outcome Report or the Program Effectiveness Data. These reports assess
how well new hires are performing in the program and how well the program is performing.
A higher score on the assessments reveal a higher operating level.
● GHP uses different points to control what is being observed as informational and useful
and what is not. They have a IT department that is able to work with around the clock on
information databases to ensure the quality of information is high.
(3) Organizational Learning – How do you use your knowledge and resources to embed learning
in the way your organization operates?
● The health industry is always changing. New medicines and procedures are always being
discovered so it is important that training is always being enforced by all employees, new
or old. Employees are required to keep updated on the hospital, the industry, and other
current events.
● Additionally, Geisinger researchers found that allowing patients access through a web
portal to their doctors' notes is associated with improved adherence to a medication
regimen. Meaning more pressure on the physicians to do well and also put more quality in
their work to gain good reputation. This is the first large-scale study to show that access
to doctors' notes helps patients take their medicines as prescribed.
 25

Milestone 5:
5.1 Workforce environment: How do you build an effective and supportive workforce
environment?
● Geisinger is very team oriented. Organizing the work force into different teams allows each
employee to gain experience in each branch, strengthening their overall skills and abilities.
Teams also encourage employees to rely on each other and allow everyone to feel
comfortable enough to ask questions if needed. All knowledge is shared and interpersonal
communication skills are also being trained, which is a major component to success in the
industry.

a. Workforce Capability and Capacity

(1) How do you assess your workforce capability and capacity needs?
● There is a minimum level of skills, education, and certifications required for
employment at Geisinger to ensure high quality employees. Not only must
employees have a college degree, a healthy and smoke free lifestyle, background
checks, and interpersonal skills; employees must match with company fit by
sharing similar values and morals. Other standards are set in place such as the
Student Learning Outcome Report, Program Effectiveness Data, and other rating
reports.
(2) How do you recruit, hire, place, and retain new workforce members?
● Most news hires apply through online applications on the company website and
other job posting sites. Bloomsburg University’s nursing program is also a major
contributor to new hires at Geisinger. Most students majoring in nursing at
BloomU work for Geisinger at some point during their college career.
(3) How do you prepare your workforce for changing capability and capacity needs?
● It is almost impossible to guess how many customers will visit the hospital per day
because illnesses and other accidents are unpredictable. Likewise, the fluctuation
of residents in Bloomsburg changes throughout the year due to college students
moving in and out of town. Due to this dynamic environment, managers must look
for potential hires that can handle high stress and large workloads.
(4) How do you organize and manage your workforce?
● Employees are separated into different groups based on various factors such as
ability, history, seniority, and training areas. Groups are the best strategy because
the workforce is mixed to obtain highest quality. Mentors are mixed with mentees
to encourage constant training and learning new things. All employees will be
somewhat familiar in all departments.
B. Workforce Climate
(1) How do you ensure workplace health, security, and accessibility for the workforce?
● There are numerous safety measures put in place to protect the workforce. Health care is
provided to keep employees healthy while working in infected environments. Bins are put
in place to keep infected or dangerous items away from the workforce and utensils and
uniforms are given for protection. Guards and cameras are also installed throughout the
hospital to protect the workforce from any danger with the patients.
 26

(2) How do you support your workforce via services, benefits, and policies?
● Programs and rewards are available to employees to keep them happy and healthy. These
benefits include health benefits, dental, vacation, bonuses, personal development
workshops, and other payment rewards.

5.2 Workforce Engagement: How do you engage your workforce to achieve a high-
performance work environment?
a. Workforce Engagement and Performance
(1) Organizational Culture – How do you foster an organizational culture that is characterized by
open communication, high performance, and an engaged workforce? How do you ensure that your
organizational culture benefits from the diverse ideas, cultures, and thinking of your workforce?
How do you empower your workforce?
● Employees are encouraged to collaborate with one another. Collaboration is a direct link
to high performance because it minimizes error and increases confidence levels. Goals are
set and employees are expected to reach these set goals. Employees hired also already have
a natural trait to exceed the minimum and perform high quality work.
(2) Drivers of Engagement – How do you determine the key drivers of workforce engagement?
How do you determine these drivers for different workforce groups and segments?
● Drivers of workforce engagement can vary in a variety of different ways. They differ based
on job position within your department, and even more so for each department. Generally
speaking key drivers are determined through communication, contribution, freedom,
growth, and “fun”. Employees feel engaged when they feel they they are making a
difference, enjoying their work, see potential, etc. All of these are the key drivers of
engagement.
(3) Assessment of Engagement - How do you assess workforce engagement? What formal and
informal assessment methods and measures do you use to determine workforce engagement,
including satisfaction? How do these methods and measures differ across workforce groups and
segments? How do you also use other indicators, such as workforce retention, absenteeism,
grievances, safety, and productivity, to assess and improve workforce engagement?
● Informal methods include simple observations to assess employee engagement. More
formal methods are also taken, such as quarterly evaluations. Since Geisinger has so many
different internal departments, measurement methods can vary. Geisinger utilizes
additional information when conducting these analyses, to draw more conclusive data, and
assess employee engagement.
(4) Performance Management – How does your workforce performance management system
support high performance workforce engagement? How does it consider workforce compensation,
reward, recognition, and incentive practices? How does it reinforce intelligent risk taking to
achieve innovation, a customer and business focus, and achievement of your action plans?
● When in comes to hospital staff, Geisinger utilizes patient feedback to give performance-
based rewards, such as bonuses or promotions. Those who have good feedback are given
rewards, while those who aren’t seek additional resources to help them be the best they can
 27

be in the workplace. This performance-based reward system reinforces the idea of “giving
110%.”
b. Workforce and Leader Development

(1) Learning and Development System – How does your learning and development system support
the organization’s needs and the personal development of your workforce members, managers,
and leaders? How does the system address your organization’s core competencies, strategic
challenges, and achievement of short- and long-term action plans; support organizational
performance improvement, organizational change, and innovation; support ethics and ethical
business practices; improve customer focus; consider the learning and development desires of
workforce members; and ensure the reinforcement of new knowledge and skills on the job?
● One of Geisinger’s main goals is to fulfill all of their patients needs. Going beyond that
they want to empower their employees to be the best that they can be. They want to be the
best, by internally being the best; meaning they are devoted to their employees learning.
(2) Learning and Development Effectiveness – How do you evaluate the effectiveness
and efficiency of your learning and development system? How do you correlate learning and
development outcomes with findings from your assessment of workforce engagement and with
key business results reported in category 7, and use these correlations to identify opportunities for
improvement both in workforce engagement and in learning and development offerings?
● The learning development system can be evaluated in many ways, for various
circumstances. Just because one employee might take longer to learn a concept, does not
mean that once learned they are equally capable of doing said concept. Geisinger works
with whichever employees show interest in their learning and development program,
helping them through it no matter how long; finding new ways of teaching if need be.
Employees who feel engaged, like to participate in this program, to better develop
themselves, along with their career.
(3) Career Progression – How do you manage career progression for your workforce and your
future leaders? How do you manage career development for your workforce? How do you carry
out succession planning for management and leadership positions?
● With each career jump, or promotion there are obviously various vetting steps. All
employees who do wish to progress must meet all qualifications of the job. Those who do
not initially meet the qualifications but wish to apply for a higher position, can work
through accomplishing those qualifications in the learning and development program.
Succession planning in hospitals is quite important. Residents in many cases are being
trained by doctors, basically on how to do their job, it’s a cycle process.

Milestone 6: Operations
6.1 Work Processes: How do you design, manage, and improve your key products and work
processes?
 28

● As a hospital, many of the products that Geisinger receives are either already put together
or, packaged medicine. However, one of the main ways they maintain their supply chain
efficiency is defining clear procedures for placing, pulling, and packaging inventory.
● “Geisinger’s leaders believe that the organization can simultaneously improve quality,
satisfaction, and efficiency only by redesigning and reengineering the delivery of care. This
philosophy is epitomized by ProvenCare, a portfolio of products (many of which are
package-priced) for which care processes have been redesigned to reliably administer a
coordinated bundle of evidence-based best practices.”
a. Product and Process Design
(1) Determination of Product and Process Requirements – How do you determine key product and
work process requirements?
● As a healthcare provider, all of Geisinger’s products must be up to legal health requirement
laws. Geisinger upholds the belief that each product should be taken care of with the same
quality, from a box of band aids, to surgical equipment, to medications. Each product is up
to legal standards that are federally approved.
·
(2) Key Work Processes – What are your organization’s key work processes? What are the key
requirements for these work processes?
● The work process for receiving inventory, packaging, and dispatching is fairly
straightforward. First all orders are tendered over to the distribution center warehouse, from
there they are organized by classification, and then by location. After that employees pick
from the order sheets and locate the desired items throughout the warehouse, packaging
them while doing so. Finally, orders are wrapped up and put in the proper location to show
that they are ready to be sent to all of the different locations.

(3) Design Concepts – How do you design your products and work processes to meet
requirements? How do you incorporate new technology, organizational knowledge, product
excellence, customer value, consideration of risk, and the potential need for agility into these
products and processes?
● Geisinger has designed their inventory management system to meet demand needs as best
as they can. As a hospital, and health care provider, getting their products where they need
to be in the most efficient manner is vital. Geisinger works with new technology to assure
that they are staying up to pace with demands, and to allow them to place, pick, and pull
inventory quickly. Along with keeping technology current, they like to encourage all
employees to participate within the organization, from making suggestions, to finding
discrepancies, etc. Geisinger also prides themselves on fulfilling customer needs. Meeting
customer needs is their main goal, however they also like to hear feedback from customers.
b. Process Management and Improvement
 29

(1) Process Implementation How does your day-to-day operation of work processes ensure that
they meet key process requirements? What key performance measures or indicators and in-process
measures do you use to control and improve your work processes? How do these measures relate
to end-product quality and performance?
● Geisinger makes sure that their day-to-day processes meet not only just legal requirements,
but also Geisinger’s core requirements. Departments have written and mandated processes
that they follow to help mitigate risks and avoid mistakes. It also helps to have they SOP’s
or standard operating procedures; when new employees are hired they can refer to these
already written procedures rather than having to guess, or go by how one person does it.
These procedures ensure that employees are following all of the rules and providing their
customers with the best service and quality possible.
(2) Support Processes – How do you determine your key support processes? What are your key
support processes? How does your day-to-day operation of these processes ensure that they meet
key business requirements?
● Geisinger’s key support processes, as previously stated are saved and enforced in the forms
of SOP’s.
(3) Product and Process – Improvement How do you improve your work processes to improve
products and performance, enhance your core competencies, and reduce variability?
● Geisinger likes to hear feedback from employees, as well as customers. They rely on their
opinions to see how they can improve their processes. They also like to see what other
hospital and health care providers are doing. By comparing themselves with others in the
industry they can make sure that they are staying up to date on the newest technology,
trends, and service. Considering information and ideas from all different sources gives
Geisinger the competitive edge they need to stay on top in the healthcare community.

c. Supply-Chain Management
How do you manage your supply chain? How do you: select suppliers and ensure that they are
qualified and positioned to not only meet operational needs but also enhance your performance
and your customers’ satisfaction; measure and evaluate your suppliers’ performance; provide
feedback to your suppliers to help them improve; and deal with poorly performing suppliers?
● Geisinger Health System has implemented a vendor program to ensure that patient care is
not influenced by consideration other than what is best for the patients of GHS. Vendors
are expected to uphold the all guidelines laid out from a variety of different documents
such as:
o GHS Vendor Credentialing Policy
o GHS Code of Conduct
o GHS Corporate Compliance Program
o GHS Federal Deficit Reduction Act
o GHS Fire Safety Course
o GHS HIPAA Policy
 30

o GHS Identity Theft Policy

o GHS Infection Control Education
o GHS Infection Control Policy
o GHS Loaner Equipment Policy
o GHS Drug and Alcohol Policy
o GHS Observational Agreement
o GHS Tobacco Free Policy
o Pennsylvania Breach of Personal Information Notification Act ("Act 94")
● Geisinger holds the right to end any vendor relationship if they are not meeting needs,
however they try to avoid this and work with vendors to fix mistakes before terminating a
relationship.

d. Innovation Management
How do you pursue your opportunities for innovation? How do you pursue the strategic
opportunities that you determine are intelligent risks? How do you make financial and other
resources available to pursue these opportunities? How do you discontinue pursuing opportunities
at the appropriate time to enhance support for higher priority opportunities?
“Innovation is a way of life here at Geisinger. It drives our delivery
of value-driven quality healthcare to every patient we serve.”
— Glenn D. Steele Jr., MD, PhD
President and Chief
Executive Officer
● One of Geisinger’s main visions is quality and innovation. Geisinger has a strong
commitment to continuous innovation. “From the day we opened our doors in 1915,
Geisinger was not a traditional hospital. Our group practice model, commitment to
innovation and our quest for quality have always distinguished us from other
organizations.” When pursuing new opportunities there are always risks, however with
proper research, companies are able to make sure that what they decide to pursue is
financially viable. Geisinger also holds the right to pull out of any opportunities they deem
no longer appropriate to pursue.
 31

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