American Values - August 2008

Dear Valued ANS Team Member:

As we close in on the second half of the year, admittedly, some-days tested our strength of character and others days were quite joyous.  This message is to remind us that our organization began many years ago with the simple “belief” that “American” could do it better.  As this belief grew, so did “American”.  The American team also began with a commitment to providing the very best quality to our clients which in turn provides the very best patient care to the communities in which we serve. None of our past success could have ever come to fruition without this.  This month, we focus on the American value, “Quality”.  The definition of Quality has two meanings: the characteristics of a service that satisfy the Client’s needs and a service free of deficiencies."  For our purposes at American, the three essential areas of focus for Continuous Quality Improvement are: 1) Clients, 2) Inside-Out Approach, and 3) Our Commitment.

As you know, our clients are the center of our universe: they define quality not us. Clients expect performance, reliability, competitive prices, great customer service, clear and correct transaction processing and more.  This means that all of us on the “American” team need to be at the top of our game, all the time.  In every attribute that influences our client’s perception of “American”; we know that just being good is not enough.  Making our clients satisfied and downright delighted is a necessity.  Let’s face it, if we don't do it, someone else will. Our clients are the most important stakeholder in our business. When we take extreme measures to satisfy our clients, they become “American” advocates and one of our most precious assets is our reputation.

Quality requires us to look at our business from the client's perspective, not ours. Outstanding quality is a result of our skill and enthusiasm in serving our clients and our knowledge and excitement about the services we provide. We nurture a quality business relationship with our clients by daily demonstrating: clients are the lifeblood of our business and we are interdependent on each other, clients are the primary motivation for our work — they are not an interruption of our work, clients are people who bring us their needs and our primary objective is to satisfy them as best we can, and our clients are fellow human beings with feelings and emotions like our own.  We must look at our processes from the inside-out and always treat our clients as equals with dignity and respect.

Simply put “We create results.”   Our team’s collective commitment is essential for the success of our organization’s approach.  Quality is the responsibility of all of us.   Everyday, we are focused on doing all necessary to bring into the organization the highest quality Nurses and Allied Professionals with our extensive credentialing process because the quality of patient care is our ultimate priority.  Earning the Goal Seal of Approval from the Joint Commission would not have been possible without our team’s continued commitment to excellence and for this we are very proud.   We all must be “happy to serve” because in offices all across the nation, big or small, we experience success as well as defeats and struggles on a daily basis.  Typically, it is through struggles that you achieve what you never thought possible.  Thank you for your commitment to doing the right thing everyday; all else will follow.

For the second half of the year, let us take up the challenge together to bring us closer to our “belief” of what we can achieve.  In some ways, we create the future that we will experience tomorrow one step at a time today. Our reputation in each community that we serve begins with the way we treat our clients and each other with honesty, integrity, reliability, and respect.  Thank you for striving for the best everyday; our success depends upon it. 

Johnette Spellman,

Director of Human Resources

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