When Carl Hoope started rounding after taking over as COO and executive vice president of Tulsa, Okla.-based Grand Mental Health in October, he found confusion around accountability for operational outcomes. In turn, this made it difficult to troubleshoot problems or drive improvement.
“I would ask, ‘Who’s responsible for this?’ And they’d say, ‘Well, I’m responsible, kind of, sometimes, sort of’ or somebody else is partially responsible. It was very unclear,” he told Becker’s.
Mr. Hoope is focused on delivering high-quality, repeatable outcomes — beginning with clarifying role responsibilities and aligning key performance indicators.
“As we brought that clarity to each role — whether it’s redefining the job description, having education about how the job should look and function, and identifying the community partners that should be impacted at each level — it provided clarity on what the priorities are,” he said.
A major focus for the organization has been developing key performance indicators for each leadership area. Those metrics are then cascaded to regional leaders and front-line staff.
“We’re able to see clearly: This is how we know if we’re winning or losing,” he said.
Leaders use defined escalation pathways and regular rounding to identify barriers to success. Staff feedback is then incorporated into the organization’s operational planning.
“We can hear from our teams, and they’re able to say, ‘I know I’m supposed to be hitting [this metric], but I don’t have the tool that I need, or I don’t have the dashboard, or we’re really struggling in this area — or I have a great idea and know where we can grow.’”
While Grand Mental Health maintains high-reliability standards and standardized workflows, local leaders still have flexibility in how they operate.
Mr. Hoope said operational discipline and accountability are essential as the organization works with partners.
“We really strive to do what it is we say we’re going to do. We are open to feedback, and we make improvements based on that feedback, because we want integrating and partnering with Grand to be seamless,” he said. “In order to do that, we have to be disciplined at our follow through and our execution, and be willing to take that tough feedback when we just don’t meet that.”
In one case, the organization was not hitting productivity targets in several areas. Leadership took that feedback and remapped what productivity looks like for clinicians. Those changes were integrated into the organization’s dashboard and the team is continuing to fine-tune the data.
“We’re capturing all of the direct and indirect work happening at the front line,” Mr. Hoopes said.
The organization has also built a discipline around documenting feedback and following up with those who raised concerns.
“We have to do what we say we’re going to do, and if you’re going to get feedback from somebody, you have to close that loop,” he said.
