Chief Strategy Officer Kae Santos Builds Culture of Continuous Improvement to Benefit Residents, Families, and Staff

For over 23 years, Katherine (Kae) Santos, MBA, chief strategy officer of Chelsea Jewish Lifecare (CJL), has established herself as a leading expert in healthcare quality and performance improvement. In addition to her role at CJL, Santos serves as faculty at Harvard Medical School and leads both master’s degree and post-graduate certificate programs on healthcare quality, safety, and leadership to teach healthcare leaders across the globe. She is also on the leadership board of the Massachusetts Healthcare Lean Network, a grassroots organization with over 400 members and 100 healthcare organizations across Massachusetts and New England that promotes learning within the healthcare quality and process improvement field.

At Chelsea Jewish Lifecare, Kae uses her extensive knowledge and expertise to work with leaders and staff to build a culture of continuous improvement. Here are some of the key strategies that Kae and her team use to make a positive impact on the care and service our residents and families receive every day in our residences.

Four Strategies Chelsea Jewish Lifecare Uses to Improve Resident and Staff Experiences

1. Understand Problems through Observation, Interviews, and Data

The first step of improvement is effectively identifying problems that constantly affect residents and staff. One of the best ways to do this is through directly observing their interactions on a day-to-day basis and speaking to residents and staff about the challenges they face every day.

“Through observations, we are able to spot problems that get in the way of our staff providing safe and efficient care,” explains Santos. For example, observations at the Leonard Florence Center for Living showed how often the staff were leaving the resident room to search for supplies while in the middle of providing care. Not having the right supplies immediately available resulted in delays and frustration for both staff and residents. “This process quickly identified supply organization and restocking was a problem we needed to tackle to help with efficiency and resident and staff satisfaction,” Santos shares.

Kae also feels it essential to use interviews to obtain information about our residents’ needs and preferences. Asking questions helps us better understand and prioritize what matters most to our residents and families. Finally, using data provides us with a way to measure the problem and know if the changes we put in place make a difference.

2. Look Both Internally and Externally to Find Solutions

“Inspiration can come from anywhere, so it is important to keep an open mind when looking for solutions to our problems,” states Santos. When COVID hit and visitation restrictions were first put in place, finding an effective way to facilitate communication between our residents and their families became one of the highest priorities.

“Fear and loneliness can hamper and even reverse the best clinical care in our residences,” Santos stresses. “To find answers, we looked outside our industry to see the steps others were taking to keep people connected.” Using technology to enable virtual connection was a key factor being adopted in the education and business sectors. “We saw we could use the same tools – tablets, video calling and online scheduling to mitigate the absence of families who were necessarily banned from being on-site,” she points out.

3. Test Ideas on a Small Scale

Before implementing new policies, procedures and/or programs, Santos recommends testing on a small scale. “This is the most effective way to plan a change, observe the results, and make any needed changes as you go along before you launch more broadly,” Santos explains. “For the supply organization issue at Leonard Florence, we started by setting up one resident room with what the staff thought were the right type and amount of supplies they needed.” It was only after a few days of testing, getting feedback from staff, and adjusting the supplies that the idea was rolled out to more rooms in the house. “By testing on a small scale and getting feedback, we felt more confident that we got the process right before expanding to the rest of the rooms,” Santos shares.

4. Keep People at the Center When Making Any Change to Help Sustain Improvements

“Making any change, no matter if it is big or small, and ensuring it lasts is always difficult,” Santos reflects. “It is therefore important to always keep in mind the reason why we are making these changes – for the benefit of our residents, families, and staff.”

For example, even though the technology to connect residents and families during COVID was relatively simple, the culture change was significant. However, everyone understood why it was important that this process was successful. Therefore, care teams committed to reserving blocks of time to facilitate video and phone calls. Online self-scheduling was added to make it easy for families to select a time to connect with loved ones without adding administrative burden to the staff. Throughout the testing of the process, feedback was gathered from residents, families, and staff to identify potential issues and adjust.

“By the end, this process was so well-received by families and staff that even now, we continue to use it to connect residents and families virtually and in care plan meetings to keep families informed,” Santos says. “Every day, our continuous improvement efforts have us constantly testing and adapting ideas to address the needs of our residents, families, and staff.”

The Key to Success

“Ultimately, having a systematic approach to continuous improvement is what allows us to quickly identify and solve problems that greatly impact our residents, families, and staff,” Kae concludes. “It is because of this never-ending pursuit of excellence that we are able to provide the best quality care and service in all our residences.”

We are extremely thankful that Kae’s expertise and knowledge is available to Chelsea Jewish Lifecare! Her work every day on behalf of residents, families, and staff members helps our organization grow and flourish.