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Innovation

Overview

At Columbus Regional Health, we are taking systematic steps to evolve the way we deliver healthcare. For the past several years, innovation has been a central strategy for moving CRH forward.

From the ways we save on energy costs, to the ways we deliver medicine to our patients, to the ways we detect cancer earlier than ever, innovation fuels our continued progress.


Inspired to think beyond

We opened our Innovation Center at Columbus Regional Health to be a catalyst for continuous innovation. Our Innovation Center is a place where our staff is inspired to think beyond the ordinary and solve problems in a new way. It is where we work to make the delivery of healthcare more compassionate, less complicated, more affordable, more predictable and always state-of-the-art.

The center combines innovation and simulation into a central location. Our Lean/Six Sigma and clinical simulation/education teams use tools in design thinking, Lean, and Six Sigma to collaborate, test, and adopt best practices faster.

Our Simulation Lab within the Innovation Center provides enhanced medical learning based on major teaching institutions such as Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Institute. Clinical and non-clinical teams use programmable human-like mannequins in simulated patient environments to create real life healthcare scenarios.

The Simulation Lab allows for rapid prototyping and testing of new ideas before they are used in patient care or in the community. It’s about perfecting skills, adapting techniques and testing new ideas to deliver smarter healthcare.

Innovation to us is the process of creating, adapting and testing new ideas to make something better. It’s all about adding value to our patients and their families, to our physicians and employees, and to our community.

Intentional Innovation

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We believe that for innovation to be intentional, we need to grow our innovation expertise in five fundamental areas or success factors. We call it our Intentional Innovation Framework: People, Places, Projects, Processes and Partners.

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Design Value Awards logo
Columbus Regional Health recently earned first place in Design Management Institute's 2017 Design Value Awards during a ceremony recognizing teams who have delivered significant value through design or design management practices.

From DMI's website: "The results are stunning. The financial gains, social impacts, environmental effects, and positive results on organizational culture will inspire you, challenge you, and most certainly make you proud to be part of an industry that is a powerful agent of change."

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Our Innovation Journey

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After studying, visiting and engaging with other organizations known for quality and innovation, we created our own Innovation Center and framework.  The heart of our Center is our team of consultants who are trained in both Lean Six Sigma and design thinking.  This is an unusual approach but one we have found to be effective at delivering results without adding to our cost structure.

Our Center is serving as a model for other community health providers and hospitals around the country who are trying to introduce innovation to their organizations in a cost-effective way.

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Innovation
Scorecards

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We measure our performance annually with an Innovation Scorecard built around our 5Ps model of Intentional Innovation. Measures include both annual short-term project measures as well as longer-term health system performance measures that may include cost, quality and satisfaction.

2017-2019 Scorecard
2014-2016 Scorecard
2011-2013 Scorecard

Center for Care Innovations

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Learn the top 5 takeaways from a CCI team's visit to our Innovation Center.

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Innovation In Action

CRH CEO Jim Bickel speaking to a group in the Think Tank

Our pursuit of innovation and excellence is embedded in every action and connection we make to give people the very best health and wellness experience. That’s why at Columbus Regional Health, we use innovation to create, adapt and test ideas to deliver smarter healthcare. Innovation is not just a buzz word for us. It is one of our core values and is part of our daily work processes.

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