Throughout his two decades in healthcare -- including as a critical care nurse early in his career -- Rob Coleman, BSN, RN, has embraced the value of leadership visibility.
"We're never too busy to be physically present for employees," Mr. Coleman, who has been with Memphis, Tenn.-based Baptist Memorial Health Care for 15 years, told Becker's. "That goes a long way so that they know if they need something or if there're barriers that need to be discussed or worked through, we work through that with them and listen."
Mr. Coleman was appointed CEO of Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle in Columbus, Miss., in 2023. The 323-bed acute care hospital is one of just 12 in the U.S. to earn 26 consecutive "A" safety grades from The Leapfrog Group.
An engaged workforce and a culture of safety are key drivers of this accomplishment, Mr. Coleman said. Nationally, the hospital's most recent employee and provider engagement scores ranked in the 90th and 94th percentiles, respectively.
"Those engagement scores are a direct reflection of the intentional culture we've built here, fostering respect and clear communication across all lines," he said.
One example of Baptist Golden Triangle's focus on safety is its efforts to reduce primary cesarean section rates among new mothers. Hospital leadership enhanced collaboration and engagement with OB physicians, decreasing primary C-section rates from about 25% to 19%, Mr. Coleman said. To support this initiative, senior leadership meets weekly with key directors and managers to address and remove barriers for front-line workers.
In 2024, the hospital prioritized bedside shift reports to improve communication with patients and their families while boosting patient engagement.
"Our work has led to an improvement in overall HCAHPS scores across all domains, increasing from a 75.54 mean score to 77.12 in 2024," Mr. Coleman said. This is a significant achievement because the higher patient satisfaction scores are, the more challenging it is to move the needle and achieve significant gains, he added.
Daily patient visits during shift reports have been instrumental in these improvements, he said.
"We do those daily patient visits to improve the communication with patients and families, so the families can ask questions at the time that those shift reports are done," Mr. Coleman said. "That has had a tremendous impact on improving our patient engagement scores."