HeartMath® LLC and Creative Health Care Management Collaborate to Deliver World-Class Programs to Enhance Patient Care and Cultivate Great Hospitals

HeartMath® LLC is announcing a strategic partnership with Minneapolis-based Creative Health Care Management (CHCM) to deliver world-class programs designed to enhance the quality of patient care and staff well-being within hospital systems around the world.

With numerous healthcare clients across the US, CHCM has demonstrated that what makes a hospital great is the human component of care — not the latest high-tech equipment or simply redesigned patient rooms. It is the relationships inside the hospital environment that matter most to healing. Similarly, HeartMath’s scientifically-validated programs and technology in dozens of healthcare environments have demonstrated that caring for self and others ultimately improves patient safety and patient satisfaction, employee satisfaction and retention, operational efficiency and the bottom line. This process starts by transforming stress and building resilience.

The partnership between CHCM and HeartMath is based on their parallel missions to help cultivate more compassionate healthcare systems where personal relationships between caregivers, patients and their families and the relationships throughout the entire hospital are at the center of care delivery.

“This collaboration offers a combined intelligence that will build on each other’s strengths,” says Bruce Cryer, CEO of HeartMath. “Client hospitals will benefit from exceptional programs designed to help caregivers realign with their original intention to care for those in need. Both organizations will be able to provide clients with unique tactics that cultivate authentic care `from the inside out’. Since we both advocate the transformation of healthcare systems into optimal caring and healing environments, HeartMath and CHCM complement each other perfectly.”

Jayne Felgen, President of CHCM, said, “Both organizations have demonstrated that building authentic, caring relationships with patients and their families, as well as with colleagues is dependent on one’s ability to also practice self-care. Learning to balance and care for oneself means that we also make it a priority to transform the areas in our own lives that prevent us from practicing authentic care.”

HeartMath’s nearly twenty years of research and clinical studies are represented in their programs which provide methodologies, applications and innovative feedback technology (emWave) that can facilitate healthcare providers to develop authentic care and discover the essential balance between caring for self and patient.

HeartMath programs have demonstrated significant improvements in performance, health, employee satisfaction and staff retention, translating into direct benefit to an organization’s bottom line. Focusing on strengthening skills that reduce stress, build resilience and accentuate authentic care not only facilitates the healing process for patients but also for the healthcare workers themselves. Cryer says, “It’s hard to truly care for a patient, family member or colleague if the stress in your own life has become overwhelming. HeartMath offers practical tools and scientifically-validated technology to reduce and prevent stress while building a new reservoir of resilience. This leads to a greater capacity to care, as well as to prevent emotional drain and burnout.

“We are very enthusiastic about this partnership with Creative Health Care Management,” adds Cryer. “Their exceptional Relationship-Based Care (RBC) model is dynamic and well-proven with hundreds of thousands of clinical and support services healthcare providers. It addresses a component which is too often missing or hampered in the complex US healthcare system: care itself. RBC complements HeartMath methodologies perfectly. We believe this will be a very powerful collaboration and we’re eager to provide our programs for enhancing the patient experience and creating a healthier and happier workforce within healthcare.”

Felgen adds, “Creative Health Care Management’s model of Relationship-Based Care is based on the natural, human inclination to care for and heal others from a place of genuine compassion. The model was developed by nurses, and it is based on the principle that creating an atmosphere where staff treats themselves, each other and patients and their families with kindness, compassion and respect can change a hospital’s culture and transform how care is being delivered at every level of the organization.”

This transformation results in enhanced patient and staff satisfaction as well as improved safety and quality scores. “We feel very excited about this partnership with HeartMath,” continues Felgen. “We see their research and practical tools and technology as very attractive components for any hospital. Their proven programs bring significant economic benefit to the hospital, and also bring to life the physiological benefits of making authentic care the first priority. Their case studies in numerous hospitals illustrate beautifully the business intelligence of this approach. When patients and employees feel cared for you can see tangible results in the bottom line. We are thrilled to embark on this new venture with HeartMath.”

The partnership between HeartMath and Creative Health Care Management unifies two powerful methodologies that will help bring greater awareness and practical tools to increase the quality of care for patients and their families — as well as for the healthcare providers — and will go a long way in helping to foster great hospitals and a transformed healthcare system.

HeartMath representatives will be at the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) National Magnet Conference this October 13th through the 15th in Phoenix, Arizona. To learn more about HeartMath stop by their booth #442 and visit their website at www.heartmath.com.

Representatives from Creative Health Care Management will also be present at this conference. You can stop by their booth #239 to learn more about their work. .

About HeartMath: www.heartmath.com
For nearly two decades, HeartMath has researched and refined a set of unique tools and proprietary technology designed to boost performance, health and productivity while dramatically reducing stress. HeartMath’s scientifically validated methods have been proven to help people measurably re-train their stress response to a healthier and more satisfying, productive function. Numerous independent studies have substantiated the effectiveness of the HeartMath system, showing quick, sustained improvements in stress, resilience, health, well-being, performance and vitality. HeartMath has developed an international reputation for the practicality and simplicity of its tools, the immediacy of its feedback technology (www.emWave.com), the significance of its published clinical research and the measurable results. Healthcare clients include Stanford Medical Center, Duke University Health System, UCSF’s Center for the Health Professions, Sutter Health, Kaiser Permanente, Blue Cross Blue Shield, American College of Healthcare Executives, California Hospital Association, Britain’s National Health Service, and dozens of hospital systems across the US. In 2005, HeartMath was honored with the ACHE “Management Innovations” award for its work with Delnor-Community Hospital in St. Charles, Illinois, and was a finalist for the 2009 ABL Innovations in Healthcare Award. HeartMath’s emWave Personal Stress Reliever technology won the 2009 Last Gadget Standing People’s Choice award and the 2009 “Caregiver Friendly Award” from Today’s Caregiver magazine. HeartMath has also been acknowledged as one of the Best Workplaces in the Bay Area in 2009 and 2010.

About Creative Health Care Management: www.chcm.com
Creative Health Care Management provides consultation services, learning programs and products to executives, leaders and all clinical and support staff members in healthcare organizations and academic settings. CHCM consultants focus on leveraging the power of relationships across organizations to create healing environments where patients and families are truly the center of caring practice. The foundation CHCM’s work is the Relationship-Based Care (RBC) care delivery model. The RBC model provides a conceptual framework with a vision for care and underlying values and principles, a practical infrastructure for putting it into action, the education and leadership necessary to make it happen and ways to measure evidence of success. Organizations who have implemented RBC see an increase in patient satisfaction and loyalty, an increase in staff and physician satisfaction and a more resource conscious and efficient work environment. Culture transformation is the end result of RBC implementation.

CHCM was founded in 1979 by Marie Manthey as a single-person healthcare consulting service. In 1982, the leadership development a program that would become Leading an Empowered Organization (LEO) and additional faculty members were brought on to teach in the program. The following years have seen the creation of new programs such as Re-Igniting the Spirit for Caring, Leadership at the Point of Care, Cultures of Excellence and Therapeutic Relationships. Client requests for the work of transforming healthcare organizations led to publishing several award winning books including, The Practice of Primary Nursing, Relationship-Based Care: A Model for Transforming Practice and I2E2: Leading Lasting Change. All three books have won the American Journal of Nursing book of the year award. Creative Health Care Management is now an international company that operates throughout the United States and in countries around the
world.

###

This press release was distributed through PR Web by Human Resources Marketer (HR Marketer: www.HRmarketer.com) on behalf of the company listed above.