You’d like to make an improvement in your community.  Perhaps you recently conducted a survey and received feedback from residents that the food is often cold.  Maybe your care team is frustrated that resident care supplies are always running out.  Perhaps team members have been asking for more training.  Whatever the situation, the red flag is up and your desire to be responsive and have a well-run operation is telling you it is time to act.

Follow these steps to execute an action plan that successfully targets the problem area and supports positive, sustainable change.  The result will be happier residents and team members and a smoother running community.

1. Assemble an action plan team.

Don’t go it alone.  Assemble an action plan team of 2 or 3 members.  Ideally, your team represents someone in a leadership role and someone on the front line.  For example, if you’d like to improve dining room service, your action plan team may consist of you, a dining director or manager, and a server.  If the goal is to provide more coaching and feedback to resident care assistants, your action plan team would likely consist of you, the director of assisted living or nursing, and a lead caregiver.  Have a kickoff meeting with the action plan team to share what you’d like to improve and set the stage for developing an action plan.  Your team will likely have some initial thoughts and ideas for making improvements in the selected area, so listen and take notes.

2. Get input from residents, family members, and/or employees.

Meet with your residents, family members, and/or employees, depending on what fits the situation.  Share your plan to improve the selected area and ask for their input.  In a structured discussion group format, flesh out their concerns and ideas.  Get to the root of their concerns by asking questions until you feel you’ve identified the specific processes and behaviors that need to change.  These discussions will help solidify your improvement goal and clarify the action steps that need to be taken.

Click this link to download steps for a successful feedback session

3. Write a specific and measurable improvement goal.

Your discussions with the action plan team, customers, and/or employees should provide the information you need to write a specific and measurable improvement goal.  A well-written goal clearly states your desired outcome and is written in specific, measurable terms.  It is seen as important and achievable by the team and has a verifiable outcome.

Example improvement goals that are specific and measurable:

  • Once per quarter, conduct a care conference for every resident.
  • Hold a 5 minute standup meeting at the beginning of every shift.
  • Increase the resident transportation schedule to 4 times per week.
  • Implement an employee recognition program by June 15th.
  • Rotate in one resident selected dinner entree to the menu every month.
  • Schedule to inventory and order resident care supplies once per week.
  • Serve every resident their main course in 15 minutes or less.

Writing your goal in this manner will serve you in two ways.  First, it will help you define and communicate the specific behaviors and processes that need to be changed.  Second, it will help you quantify the measures you will use to monitor progress and determine if the goal has been met.

4. Create a SMART action plan.

Using your improvement goal and feedback from your discussion groups as a guide, work with your action plan team to write a SMART action plan.  SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.  Identify the action steps that will be taken to meet the goal.  Iden­tify the individual(s) who will be responsible for com­pleting each action step. Meet with these individuals to discuss their roles and responsibilities, identify and acquire needed resources, and set realistic target dates.

Click this link to download a blank action plan form

5. Measure progress while your plan is underway and beyond.

What methods will you use to measure progress toward your goal?  This question is often overlooked but is critical to the success of your plan.  Before you begin implementing your plan, take a look at the measurable im­provement goal you wrote and identify one or two easy methods for measuring change in performance through­out the improvement phase. Let’s say your measurable goal is to serve every resident their main course in 15 minutes or less so food is timely and hot.  Here are a few ideas for monitoring this goal once your plan is underway:

Example progress measures:

  • At regular intervals, unobtrusively count the number of residents served and not served within 15 minutes.  Calculate a ratio of number served within 15 minutes divided by total number served.
  • Leave feedback cards on the dining tables and ask residents to complete them and drop them into a suggestion box.  The card could have one question, which reads “In the past month, has service in the dining room gotten faster?  Yes or No.  Allow space for comments.
  • Place two jars at the entrance of the dining room along with a bowl of marbles.  On their way out of the dining room, ask residents to drop a marble into one jar if their meal was hot or the other jar if it was not.  One of our clients came up with this creative idea and it worked!  Make sure the jars are opaque so residents are not influenced by the amount of marbles in each jar.

At set points throughout the improvement phase, review the results of your progress measures.  Should you stay the course or make adjustments?  If you feel a change in direction is needed, establish next steps and communicate them to action plan team members.  Be careful not to change course too often as doing so could create a sense of disorganization and lost focus.  Further, it may take time for your improvement efforts to make an impact.  In the end, you will be rewarded with an improved process and delighted residents and employees.

Need additional insights and tools for managing your action plan process? Contact Sensight Surveys at 630-237-4138.