Cover Story
The perfect cure
How Larry Ainsworth got 3,500 employees to buy in to change at St. Joseph Hospital of Orange
By Matt McClellan
Smart Business Orange County | August 2008
Page 1 of 4
Sometimes Larry K. Ainsworth has to deal with the skeptics —
it’s just part of the job. They come out of the woodwork every
now and then to chide him for his hospital’s pie-in-the-sky goal of
providing “perfect care.” The president and CEO of St. Joseph
Hospital of Orange hasn’t yet let the detractors stop him from setting his sights high, and he doesn’t plan on letting it happen anytime soon.
“Some people take an issue with that and say, ‘Look, you’re
dealing with human beings — that’s unrealistic to demand perfect care,’” he says. “Our view is, how would you feel about getting on an airplane when the motto of the airline is ‘We hope to
get you there 90 percent of the time?’”
But perfect care is just one of the goals set forth for the
organization. His staff also strives to create healthy communities and provide “sacred encounters,” which Ainsworth
defines as a deep, meaningful interaction that reassures the
patient that the hospital is completely committed to treating
his or her body, mind and spirit.
“The perfect care goal is more about what we do,”
Ainsworth says. “Sacred encounters is more how we do it.”
The three goals — perfect care, sacred encounters and providing healthy communities — were set forth by the hospital’s parent organization, St. Joseph Health System, to
improve service across the 14-hospital system.
The enormous task that lay in front of Ainsworth was figuring out how to best address those goals in his particular hospital — without deviating too far from the overall vision of
the health system. Once he cleared that hurdle, he would
have to get his 3,500 employees on board with his plans and
find a way to measure progress toward the hospital’s goals.
Here’s how he did it.
