Thinking of spending a bundle of money on a consultant to tell you how to solve your hospital's front-line problems?

Two executives with Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana, Ill., said executives looking for quick answers might be neglecting the consultants they already have on the payroll: their own staff members.

John Snyder, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Carle Foundation Hospital, told an audience how his integrated system uses what it calls Rapid Action Teams of front-line workers and managers to solve common problems or find ways to save money by implementing plans that take no more than 90 days.

All of the ideas are generated by the employees, who spend no more than 10% of their weekly work hours in meetings to develop and implement the ideas, Snyder said. The result is that, in addition to solving problems, workers feel empowered seeing their ideas put into action. “It's as much about employee satisfaction as it is about finances,” Snyder said during a presentation Wednesday at the American College of Healthcare Executives annual Congress on Healthcare Leadership in Chicago.

For example, a team of nurses identified overtime spending on after-shift hours as costing $525,000 between the hospital's various units. By first brainstorming ideas and holding 10 meetings, the team eventually implemented seven different ideas on everything from change-of-shift handoff procedures to scheduling half-hour lunch breaks—eventually saving around $400,000 in total over the course of a year.

“They came up with all of this themselves. We didn't tell them to do it. That's why this is such a potent tool,” said Beth Edrington, director of internal consulting and performance improvement at the hospital.