Emory Healthcare pharmacy team members holding GROSS By The Numbers reports

GROSS (Getting Rid of Stupid Stuff)

Improving Workflows. Supporting Well-Being.

Small frustrations add up.

Unnecessary steps, inefficient workflows, communication gaps, and everyday operational barriers can make work harder than it needs to be. Over time, these small challenges increase workload, create frustration, and contribute to burnout.

GROSS (Getting Rid of Stupid Stuff) is a workflow improvement initiative designed to identify and reduce the everyday inefficiencies that impact employees’ work and well-being.

By improving how work is designed and experienced, GROSS helps create smoother workflows, stronger teamwork, and a more supportive work environment.

Why It Matters

Workflow friction may feel small—but its impact is not.

Everyday inefficiencies increase workload, create delays, and reduce clarity in how work gets done. Over time, these challenges contribute to stress, frustration, and burnout, and affect overall operational performance.

GROSS turns these challenges into opportunities for improvement by combining employee voice, collaboration, and shared ownership of solutions.

When employees actively identify workflow barriers and work together to improve them, real and sustainable change becomes possible.

The result:
  • More efficient workflows with reduced unnecessary steps and administrative burden
  • Reduced rework, faster issue resolution, and fewer delays
  • Stronger communication, coordination, and collaboration across teams and units
  • Improved access to equipment, supplies, and resources
  • Lower workload burden for frontline teams
  • More consistent and reliable operations
  • Improved employee well-being
  • Stronger employee voice and engagement in the improvement effort

By removing everyday operational barriers and empowering employees to shape how work gets done, GROSS helps make work easier, more connected, and more sustainable across Emory.

At Emory

At Emory, GROSS is grounded in the Nature of Work within the EmWELL Workplace Well-Being Model, recognizing that how work is designed directly affects the employee experience, operational performance, and quality outcomes.

EmWELL Workplace Well-Being Model showing three interconnected domains: Personal resiliency, Workplace culture, and Nature of work

Adapted from the Stanford WellMD Model with permission. Copyright 2016 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.

Originally developed at Hawaii Pacific Health and later incorporated into the American Medical Association STEPS Forward™ program, GROSS began as an initiative to reduce unintended burdens for clinicians by encouraging employees to identify inefficient, unnecessary, or poorly designed aspects of their daily EHR and documentation workflows.

The initiative has expanded beyond EHR-related frustrations to address broader operational challenges across the organization, including:

  • Operational workflow barriers
  • Workforce and communication issues
  • Facility and equipment challenges
  • Technology and system limitations
  • Clinical care process inefficiencies

This broader operational approach positions GROSS as both a workflow-improvement and a workforce-well-being initiative—focused on improving how work is designed, coordinated, and experienced across teams.

How GROSS Works

GROSS gives employees a direct and structured way to share the everyday inefficiencies they experience in their work.

Think of it like a pebble in your shoe. One small issue may not seem significant, but over time it creates frustration, slows work down, and increases stress.

The process follows a continuous improvement cycle:

Employees identify workflow friction → Issues are reviewed and prioritized → Solutions are implemented → Improvements are celebrated and scaled.

GROSS five-step continuous improvement process: Collect, Review and Triage, Evaluate, Solution, and Celebrate and Impact

GROSS ensures employee concerns are not only heard, but actively reviewed, addressed, and followed through with action whenever possible.

Impact in Action

Since launching GROSS at Emory, employees across departments have actively identified workflow barriers and operational challenges affecting their daily work. To date, 629 submissions have been received, representing real, frontline experiences across units. 407 distinct issues were identified through the grouping of similar submissions

EmWELL team presenting a GROSS Certificate of Achievement to the EUHM Anesthesiology Department

Of these submissions:

  • 156 issues have been resolved
  • 155 issues are currently in progress
  • 96 issues were determined to be out of scope or not feasible at this time

These outcomes demonstrate strong engagement and a growing system of continuous improvement driven directly by employee voice.

Some improvements implemented through GROSS at Emory include:

  • EPIC optimization: 9 workflow updates, 4 system-level improvements
  • Hand hygiene: +60% improvement via supply reorganization
  • Operational reliability: Reduced Wi-Fi lockouts, equipment failures, and supply delays
  • Safety & compliance: Improved reporting workflow, sharps safety, and daily attestations
  • OR readiness: Better gown/scrub access, new supplies, improved workstation setup
  • Communication & access: Updated intranet, residency handbook, pit phone relocation
  • Engagement: Culture Awards launched to strengthen recognition
  • Data systems: Stabilized Consortiax for reliable data flow
  • Collaboration: Improved EVS and clinical team coordination

GROSS continues to turn employee feedback into measurable operational improvements across Emory—strengthening both workflow efficiency and employee experience.

Learn More

Learn more about GROSS results by viewing the impact infographic.

GROSS By The Numbers infographic showing program impact: 7 units, 398 team members, 629 submissions, 407 distinct issues, with resolution status and improvement highlights

You can also access the GROSS one-pager for a quick overview of the program.