Creating a Culture of Innovation at Memorial Hospital

Memorial Hospital, a regional hospital in South Bend, Ind., has created a unique “Innovation Everywhere” culture.

“Our innovation initiatives started 10 years ago, when quality guru Leland Kaiser issued a challenge for us to show how hospitals make meaningful research and development investments,” says Diane Stover, vice president of innovation strategy, at Memorial Hospital.

“We started a program of “inno-visits,” where we took executives, clinicians, physicians, and other members of our staff on visits to various companies and college technology transfer departments to observe and learn. Over the years, we’ve taken nearly 100 of these trips.”

“Among many things, we’ve learned that organizations have two major approaches to introducing innovation. First, there’s the ‘smart man theory’ where you lock a few people in a room and put them in charge of all the innovative ideas. And second, there’s the ‘every man theory.’ It teaches that everyone is capable of contributing to the process of innovation. Obviously, we went with the latter and constantly work to engage the innovative natures of our people.”

This article is excerpted from a longer feature on this topic in the August 2009 issue of the Healthcare Cost Containment newsletter. Read the full article. (Subscription required.)