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West Park Healthcare Centre

There’s an ancient Chinese proverb that says if you want to quench the thirst of others, you must first ensure your own glass is full, or else you will have nothing to give.

Toronto’s West Park Healthcare Centre believes this same philosophy applies to patient care, for if staff don’t feel valued and fulfilled in their workplace, then the Centre can’t achieve its mission of ‘helping people live the fullest lives possible.’

“Ensuring the best possible quality of worklife (QWL) is critical to providing the best possible care delivery environment for our patients,” says Anne-Marie Malek, President and CEO of West Park Healthcare Centre.

The Centre provides specialized rehabilitation, complex continuing and long-term care services, helping individuals manage difficult health challenges like lung disease, diabetes, stroke, amputation and musculoskeletal issues arising from a life-changing event or illness.

Building on the Centre’s commitment to investing in people, one of the key priorities of West Park’s HR Strategy is to promote a healthier workplace. As an initial step, West Park conducted an employee feedback survey in 2008 that explored 22 QWL-specific indicators as well as general health and wellness indicators.

The results indicated that some of the most important relationships impacting a healthy workplace are experienced within the immediate work teams, including managers, physicians and other colleagues.

Next, a strategy was created to share the results within each department/clinical program, and engage each of these teams in developing quality of worklife improvement initiatives (QWLIIs), which were specific and meaningful to their area.

“Using change management principles, this practice maximizes employee buy-in and empowers them to become involved in effecting change,” says Liliana Catapano, Director of Human Resources at West Park.

“Teams identified priorities for their area and proposed solutions. They also developed an action plan, gained their manager’s commitment and together implemented and will evaluate their QWL IIs,” she explained.

A key component of the practice’s success was the fact that West Park’s Senior Management Team led by example. They supported the initiative by actively communicating overall survey results, linking the results to the Centre’s values and strategy, and then committing resources to enable staff engagement in the QWL IIs.

In fact, the Senior Management Team, comprised of the CEO, VPs, senior leaders and support staff, were the first team to develop and communicate their own QWL II, demonstrating they take the issue of QWL seriously.

More specifically, the practice unfolded as follows:

A standard template was created to guide the process and maintain consistency across teams.
After presenting the overall survey results, teams received results specific to their department/unit and a facilitator met with each manager to establish follow-up steps.
Area-specific team dynamics were considered, such as the involvement of managers in their team’s interpretation of the results.
Guidelines for respectful team discussion were provided and a facilitated process generated ideas on areas for improvement.
Teams discussed results without their managers present to encourage freedom of expression, although key themes were subsequently shared with managers to allow for full discussion when they rejoined their team.
Once the team decided on a QWLII, they established an action plan and evaluation strategy to assess impact.
QWLIIs progress reports are regularly provided to the senior team and management. Achievement of key milestones is communicated and celebrated via employee newsletters, staff meetings, open forums, etc.

“This practice allowed staff to directly impact QWL within their own teams and work areas, emphasizing their role -- both at the individual and team level -- in fostering a healthy workplace,” says Catapano.

“The process also opened up lines of communication, promoted teamwork, and helped employees understand each other’s needs and value the contribution they each make to patient care and the quality of the work environment,” she notes.

To date, West Park’s efforts have achieved remarkable success. In just three months, over 40 teams were formed and all departments/units have communicated QWL results specific to their area. Ninety-five percent of the teams identified QWLIIs and eighty percent targeted one or two QWLIIs for implementation.

Common themes include improving team communication, enhanced education and training, plus setting formal expectations using tools like team charters and codes of conduct.

Catapano says West Park will continue to communicate its key learnings and evolving practices to staff as its QWL focus continues.

In addition to formally adopting the Quality Worklife Quality Healthcare Collaborative’s Healthy Healthcare Leadership Charter, West Park is also reviewing its performance management system to ensure it links to QWL principles and approaches.

“We recognize that improving quality of worklife is a journey, not a destination,” says Catapano.

With this positive attitude and proactive philosophy, it appears West Park Healthcare Centre is determined to keep its QWL glass full for the benefit of both staff and patients alike.

For more information on West Park Healthcare Centre, please visit www.westpark.org.