CoxHealth Innovation Accelerator to launch game-changing ways of working

Photo: A glimpse of the 2016 CoxHealth Innovation Accelerator.

Media opportunity: Come watch the CoxHealth Innovation Accelerator in action on Tuesday, Jan. 24 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. (while teams develop their ideas) at The eFactory. Please call 417-813-8915 if you plan to attend. CoxHealth leadership will be available for interviews.

In 2016, the first CoxHealth Innovation Accelerator brought 50 employees – from entry-level to executive – together to share their ideas for how the health system could be more innovative in its way of working.

Due to the success of last year’s event, the second annual Innovation Accelerator is set to begin today.

“We were thrilled with the ideas everyone brought to the table during last year’s event,” says Scott Rogers, CoxHealth’s system director for Performance Integration and Innovation. “They really offered fresh, unique perspectives that resulted in concepts that we wanted to implement.”

Many of those ideas saw follow through: More than 20 percent of the ideas pitched during the 2016 event have been, or will be, implemented. An example is the winning idea – offering delivery service to health system employees from the newly rebranded CoxHealth Pharmacy – which has been launched to great success.

“Employees are thrilled that this service is now available to them, and it’s something that might never have come about if not for the innovation accelerator,” says Rogers. Many other ideas, including those on clinic flow and expansion of other ancillary health care services, are still in the pilot phase and continue to be developed. 

2017’s Innovation Accelerator is shaping up to offer more great ideas. Practically speaking, here’s how it works: Employees applied for the event, a pool from which 50 were selected to participate. Those individuals will gather at The eFactory, each with one minute to present their best idea for innovative improvement.  

After that, the participants will select between 5 and 7 of the top ideas to workshop with the help of local business coaches, all of whom are members of the CoxHealth Board of Directors:

· Chuck Chalender, agent with American Family Insurance

·  Kurt Hellweg, chairman of International Dehydrated Foods and American Dehydrated Foods

·  Jim Hutcheson, president of Jim Hutcheson Realtors, Inc.

·  Bob McDowell, owner of McDowell Consulting LLC

The next afternoon, each group will present their idea to CoxHealth leadership including Steve Edwards (president and CEO), Jake McWay (CFO), William Mahoney (president of Cox Medical Center Branson) and Karen Kramer (CNO). They will be joined by Joe Turner, J.D., president and CEO of Great Southern Bank and chairman of the CoxHealth Board of Directors, and Jack Prim, executive chairman of Jack Henry & Associates, who is also a member of the CoxHealth Board of Directors.

Ultimately, 2017’s winning ideas – as well as others suggested – will likely become implemented throughout the CoxHealth system. 

“One of our goals is to always improve, and the results of this event will offer a new way to do that,” says Rogers. “Based on last year’s success, we’re even more excited about what 2017’s event will bring.”