Social distancing. Working remotely. Wearing masks. COVID-19 took away much of the human interaction that served as a foundation for building connections.
An enhanced type of rounding at Texas Health Resources is bringing it back.
Executive Leader Rounding, being piloted at seven facilities, is designed to bring executives and front-line staff together to build trust, address problems, improve processes and celebrate successes. The approach is based on four C’s: connect, check, concerns and commit.
“We are strengthening relationships and building accountability and trust,” said Eric Gustaf, M.S.N., R.N., director, Quality, Patient Safety and Risk Management, Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Azle. “Leaders are asking about progress on goals and performance improvement projects, while front-line staff has the power to speak up and hold us as leaders accountable – eyeball to eyeball.”
A standard approach
Rounding by leaders has taken place for years at many entities, using various tools and approaches. In 2022, Texas Health identified the need to enhance and standardize rounding related to patient safety and the high reliability organization journey.
“Our Executive Leader Rounding gives us a structure for intentionally rounding and then analyzing findings and following up on issues identified during the rounds,” said Kristin Duncan, M.B.A., B.S.N., R.N., CPPS, senior director, Patient Safety-Risk Management, Texas Health.
For Executive Leader Rounding, multidisciplinary teams of leaders visit the same departments or units every weekday for a set number of weeks or months. Each day of the week has a different theme for discussion, including regulatory readiness, consumer experience and high reliability organization focus. (See complete list at left.)
Creating connections
Some employees are surprised at first by the regular visits from leaders, but they soon realize the benefits, according to Santiago Gonzalez, R.N., a charge nurse in the operating room at Texas Health Hospital Frisco.
“It was a little intimidating at first, like ‘Are we in trouble?’” he said. “But now we realize it’s a great tool for getting things done. Decisions can be made on the spot, and problems can be fixed right away.”
Relationship-building has been one of the greatest benefits of Executive Leader Rounding.
“We have a lot of new leaders at Texas Health Cleburne, so rounding with the same team every day has really helped us develop relationships with each other,” said Vicki Brockman, D.N.P., R.N., NEA-BC, chief nursing officer, Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Cleburne.
Brandon Goertz, Ph.D., M.H.A., vice president, Professional & Support Services, Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Hurst-Euless-Bedford, has felt a difference at the hospital.
“Significant benefits to the rounding are the frequent interactions and enhanced communications between our leadership team and front-line staff,” he said. “These daily interactions result in building a comfortable foundation that allows conversations focused on everything from families and weekend plans to process improvement projects and how we can best support patients and staff.”
Supporting staff leads to supporting patients.
“We are here to support front-line team members to help them be successful, and that ultimately benefits patients,” said Brockman.
In addition to Texas Health Azle, Texas Health Cleburne, Texas Health Frisco and Texas Health HEB, the following entities are participating in the pilot program: Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Kaufman, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Plano and Texas Heath Harris Methodist Hospital Southwest Fort Worth. All other Texas Health entities will launch Executive Leader Rounding between July and September.
