Overview
Main description
In her groundbreaking book The Southwest
Airlines Way, Jody Hoffer Gittell revealed
the management secrets of the company
Fortune magazine called “the most successful
airline in history.” Now, the bestselling
business author explains how to apply those
same principles in one of our nation’s largest,
most important, and increasingly complex
industries.
High Performance Healthcare explains the critical
concept of “relational coordination”—coordinating work through shared goals,
shared knowledge, and mutual respect.
Because of the way healthcare is organized,
weak links exist throughout the chain of
communication. Gittell clearly demonstrates
that relational coordination strengthens those
weak links, enabling providers to deliver high
quality, efficient care to their patients.
Using Gittell’s innovative management methods,
you will improve quality, maximize
efficiency, and compete more effectively.
High Performance Healthcare walks you step by step
through the process of:
- Identifying weak areas of relational
coordination within your organization
- Transforming work practices that
are creating barriers to relational
coordination
- Building a high performance work
system to foster consistent relational
coordination across all disciplines
The book includes case studies illustrating
how some healthcare organizations are
already transforming themselves using Gittell’s
proven tools. It concludes by identifying industry-level obstacles to high performance
healthcare and showing how individual organizations
and their leaders can support
sweeping change at the highest levels.
Policy changes and increased access to care
will not alone answer the healthcare industry’s
problems. Timely, accurate, problem-solving
communication that crosses all organizational
boundaries is a powerful response to business
as usual. High Performance Healthcare explains
exactly how to achieve this crucial dynamic,
providing a long-awaited cure to an industry
in crisis.
Table of contents
Part I: Relational Coordination and High Performance Healthcare
Chapter 1: The Challenges We Face
Chapter 2: Relational Coordination as a Driver of Cost and Quality Performance
Chapter 3: Relational Coordination and Resilience under Pressure
Part II: Building Relational Coordination
Chapter 4: Develop Leadership at the Front-Line
Chapter 5: Hire and Train for Relational Competence
Chapter 6: Measure and Reward Performance Broadly
Chapter 7: Resolve Conflicts Proactively
Chapter 8: Design Jobs for Focus
Chapter 9: Create Boundary Spanners
Chapter 10: Connect Through Pathways and Protocols
Chapter 11: Broaden Participation in Team Meetings
Chapter 12: Establish Information Systems
Chapter 13: Partner with Your Suppliers
Part III: Getting from Here to There
Chapter 14: Overcome the Obstacles to Change
Chapter 15: Support High Performance Healthcare at the Industry Level
Author comments
Jody Hoffer Gittell teaches Human
Resource Management, Operations Management,
and Organizational Theory at Brandeis
University’s Heller School for Social Policy
and Management. She serves as a cochair of
the Health Care Industry Council, and is the
author of The Southwest Airlines Way and over
a dozen articles on healthcare management.
Prior to joining Brandeis, Gittell earned her
PhD from the MIT Sloan School of Management
and taught for six years at Harvard
Business School.
Back cover copy
A proven business remedy for our
ailing healthcare industry
“Healthcare delivery systems work only when the people in them—line workers and leadership alike—are in highly functional, trustworthy, and productive relationships. High Performance Healthcare is
both theoretically sound and eminently practical—a rare combination!”
–Thomas S. Inui, ScM, MD, Relationship-Centered Care Initiative
Codirector and Professor of Medicine and Associate Dean for Health Care Research,
Indiana University School of Medicine
“Dr. Gittell shows how a relatively small number of communication and relationship-building elements
have a direct relationship to successful performance in both healthcare and the airline industry.
Her ultimate accomplishment in healthcare may be a simple tool that builds
the individual reliability mandatory for safe patient care.”
–Robert S. Hendler, MD, Vice President, Clinical Quality, Tenet Healthcare Corporation
“Gittell’s book raises important issues and options that need to be addressed
in any national healthcare reform effort.”
–Thomas P. Glynn, PhD, Chief Operating Officer, Partners HealthCare
“This is a must-read for improving organizational performance.”
—Earll M. Murman, PhD, MIT Ford Professor of Engineering Emeritus
and coauthor of Lean Enterprise Value
“High Performance Healthcare points compellingly to a direction for change.”
—Christine Bishop, PhD, Atran Professor of Labor Economics,
Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University
“Every healthcare leader needs to read this book.”
—Gene Beyt, MD, MS, Senior Vice President of Medical Quality, Clarian Health
“This is an important work for clinicians, educators, and administrators.”
—John Wright, MD, Attending Orthopedic Surgeon,
Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School
