High Performance Healthcare: Using the Power of Relationships to Achieve Quality, Efficiency and Resilience

In her groundbreaking book The SouthwestAirlines Way, Jody Hoffer Gittell revealedthe management secrets of the companyFortune magazine called “the most successfulairline in history.” Now, the bestsellingbusiness author explains how to apply thosesame principles in one of our nation’s largest,most important, and increasingly complexindustries.

High Performance Healthcare explains the criticalconcept of “relational coordination”―coordinating work through shared goals,shared knowledge, and mutual respect.Because of the way healthcare is organized,weak links exist throughout the chain ofcommunication. Gittell clearly demonstratesthat relational coordination strengthens thoseweak links, enabling providers to deliver highquality, efficient care to their patients.Using Gittell’s innovative management methods,you will improve quality, maximizeefficiency, and compete more effectively.

High Performance Healthcare walks you step by stepthrough the process of:

• Identifying weak areas of relationalcoordination within your organization
• Transforming work practices thatare creating barriers to relationalcoordination
• Building a high performance worksystem to foster consistent relationalcoordination across all disciplines

The book includes case studies illustratinghow some healthcare organizations arealready transforming themselves using Gittell’sproven tools. It concludes by identifying industry-level obstacles to high performancehealthcare and showing how individual organizationsand their leaders can supportsweeping change at the highest levels.

Policy changes and increased access to carewill not alone answer the healthcare industry’sproblems. Timely, accurate, problem-solvingcommunication that crosses all organizationalboundaries is a powerful response to businessas usual. High Performance Healthcare explainsexactly how to achieve this crucial dynamic,providing a long-awaited cure to an industryin crisis.

Jody Hoffer Gittell teaches HumanResource Management, Operations Management,and Organizational Theory at BrandeisUniversity’s Heller School for Social Policyand Management. She serves as a cochair ofthe Health Care Industry Council, and is theauthor of The Southwest Airlines Way and overa dozen articles on healthcare management.Prior to joining Brandeis, Gittell earned herPhD from the MIT Sloan School of Managementand taught for six years at HarvardBusiness School.