<i>John Commins, for HealthLeaders
Media</i>

Some 43% of more than 8,000 workers in a
recent survey say they've quit a job at some
point in their lives because of bad bosses.

When I last interviewed Bridget Duffy, MD, she was just getting settled into her new job as Cleveland Clinic's chief experience officer. She's been busy since then,
expanding the clinic's focus on the patient experience and customer satisfaction by launching new programs, creating new positions, and making sure patients' and families' voices are heard.

Critical Concepts and Practical Applications to Help
Your Organization Effectively Integrate
Market Research and Assessment...into Marketing
and Business Development Plans...into
Marketing Communications with Impact

A “one size fits all” approach doesn’t work any better in leadership than it does with serving coffee to a Starbucks generation.

Baird Consulting has joined the
blogosphere. Posts to the brand-new blog
will offer health care leaders practical ideas
and opinions on how to improve their
pateints' experiences.

Kristin Baird, RN, MHA, president of Fort Atkinson-based Baird Consulting, Inc., has been appointed to serve on the National Advisory Council on the National Health Service Corps in Washington, DC. Baird will begin her appointment on January 8, 2009 in Washington, DC.

Typically, organizations pour a lot of effort and brain power into developing powerful mission, vision and values statements. The final results of arduous brainstorming sessions, these statements are boldly plastered on websites, walls, organizational literature and employee name tags. They stand as the organization’s essential promises to their customers. Breaking any one of these promises leads to a breakdown in service, quality and ultimately, your reputation.

Two decades ago, the concept of customer service was just beginning to infiltrate hospitals and health care organizations. Back then, customer service was viewed as an added bonus, something nice to do for patients after the “real” clinical work of the organization was complete. Customer service operated in its own silo, and wasn’t viewed as essential to the success of the organizational mission. It was nice, but not necessary.

Kristin Baird's new book, Raising the Bar on
Service Excellence - The Health Care
Leader's Guide to Putting Passion Into
Practice, will be released this summer.

Five-part Webinar Series Begins in January!

Who's job is it to lead the way in ensuring
that all employees are living the mission,
vision and values of your organization?
Some could say it's the CEO, some could
say it's HR, some could say it's marketing,
but really, it's a collaboration of all of the
above. In strong, vital organizations, the
lines of communication between marketing
and HR are kept open and honest. The
important conversations aren't avoided, and
an atmosphere of collaboration helps
everyone win.

According to author Os Guinness, "Deep in our hearts, we
all want to find and fulfill a purpose bigger than ourselves. For each of us the real purpose is personal and passionate: to know what we are to do and why."

<u>September 19
Society for Health Strategy and Market
Development
Living your Brand Promise from the
Inside Out
San Francisco, CA

Kris Baird, Cheryl Stone and Jean Hitchcock presented the Your Health Care Marketing MBA in Just One Day on July 25th at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) in Portland, OR. Offered as an outreach program for the Society for Health Strategy and Market Development (SHSMD), the program is a crash course in the essentials of health care marketing and business development.