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Craig  Deao

Craig Deao

Member of the Senior Executive Team at the Studer Group

Craig Deao

Member of the Senior Executive Team at the Studer Group

Biography

Since 2006, Craig Deao has made an impact at the Studer Group as a member of the senior executive team. Craig served as an integral leader in Studer Group’s Baldrige journey. Now he spends his time dedicated to healthcare organizations working with their medical staffs and executives to help architect their own journeys to excellence.

Currently, Craig leads the Education, Speaking and Publishing teams for Studer Group. He is also a sought-after national speaker on topics related to leadership, accountability, patient experience and quality and safety. In addition to his full-time work with Studer Group, he serves as faculty for the American College of healthcare executives and dozens of healthcare systems across the United States and Canada. Born and raised in New Orleans, Craig received two bachelors degrees from Louisiana State University.

He received a Master’s degree in healthcare administration from the University of Minnesota. Craig now lives in Pensacola, Florida where he serves on the quality committee of his local health system. He has been married to his wife, Julie for more than 11 years, and is the proud father of eight-year-old Sam and six-year-old Jack.

Speech Topics

Patient Safety, Quality & Satisfaction: High Leverage Tactics that Improve all Three

The past decade has seen the rise of dozens of nationally-standardized metrics that are transparently reported, tied to reimbursement and galvanizing the attention of healthcare leaders. Yet many actions to improve these measures are fractured in their approach, limiting their effectiveness and stretching already-thin resources. Fortunately, evidence shows there are several high-leverage practices that can sustain improvement in multiple outcome domains through single actions. This session will review the evidence correlating positive patient experiences with quality and safety; introduce three evidence-based practices proven to improve each of these domains; and inspire attendees to set targets and hold themselves and their colleagues accountable for delivering perfect patient experiences.

Learning Objectives:

  • See the evidence correlating positive patient experiences with quality and safety;
  • Learn three evidence-based practices proven to improve each of these domains;
  • Be inspired to set targets and hold themselves and their colleagues accountable for delivering perfect patient experiences.

Creating a Better Place to Work, Practice Medicine & Receive Care

If you want to create highly engaged and loyal customers, first focus on creating highly engaged and loyal employees (and, in healthcare, this includes physicians whether employed or not). In this session participants will learn how the nation’s most successful healthcare organizations achieve and sustain high performance on their key measures of quality, safety, service and financial sustainability through a pathway focused on engaging their people.

Learning Objectives:

  • Describe the evidence linking customer loyalty with employee and physician engagement;
  • Describe the Evidence-Based Leadership system used by Baldrige recipients in healthcare to sustain world-class performance;
  • Implement the first key steps toward achieving world-class customer and employee engagement.

The New Core Competency for Healthcare: Engaging Patients, Employees & Physicians

Leaders in healthcare have a competitive advantage: we have the most talented, passionate people of any industry. Yet, despite decades of focus on performance improvement our results lag our ambitions. In this session hear Studer Group's latest thinking on engaging people as the core competency necessary to achieve your mission.

Objectives:

1) Describe the latest trends in patient, physician and employee engagement.

2) Shift your leadership philosophy from satisfaction to engagement.

3) Implement evidence-based strategies to empower your team's human capital.

Compelling Communication: Creating Engagement, Understanding & Results

Develop communication skills that produce consensus, ownership and results.
Acquire ready-to-use communication tools to increase employee engagement, clarify performance expectations and create a culture of collaboration—resulting in a more purpose-driven and productive organization.

Objectives:

  • Enhance leadership and coaching skills to deliver aligned messages connecting behavior to mission execution.
  • Apply communication techniques to create a feedback-rich environment, minimize negativity, convey respect, encourage peer to peer leadership and navigate difficult conversations.
  • Obtain methods to increase staff and organization engagement and decrease turnover and anxiety.
  • Gain comfort in clarifying performance expectations to reduce miscommunications and safety errors.
  • Understand how fear creates conflict and undermines quality.
  • Identify the roles of respect and safety in delivery of difficult messages.
  • Develop a personal action plan incorporating tactics and lessons learned.

Testimonials