Inspire competition with department newsletter
Inspire competition with department newsletter
Inexpensive, simple way to engage staff
A newsletter is an inexpensive, simple way to inspire some friendly competition to motivate your patient access staff. At Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte, NC, the patient access department distributes a monthly newsletter featuring top performers for productivity and accuracy. Productivity is measured either by the number of accounts worked or registrations completed.
"This is done automatically through our system," says Carlton Smalls, former director of patient access. "Each staff member receives a report daily, and everyone's productivity is graphed and posted monthly."
Staff celebrate goals
At Stanford (CA) Hospital & Clinics, the monthly newsletter The Admitting Times goes out to all admitting staff. "It is a way to celebrate goals that have been achieved," says Anna Dapelo-Garcia, director of patient admitting services. The newsletter highlights staff who have been promoted and staff suggestions that have been implemented.
A recent issue featured a staff person's idea to create a document that lists the most common calls received, and a script on how to answer callers' questions. The script she suggested was created, and staff now use this as a reference tool.
The story also gave credit to the same staff person for a second idea that was implemented, for redirecting patients when they come to the admitting lobby. One entrance into the lobby was closed off, and patients were redirected to enter the other end of the lobby. This facilitated a more streamlined, less confusing approach at the triage desk. A sign on a post now identifies the entrance area to the lobby.
Along with the newsletter, a four-week average of the department's key performance indicators is distributed. "Staff can see if their unit is achieving its goal. If a goal is not met, the reason for not meeting the goal is explained," says Dapelo-Garcia. "Thus, staff can understand how the key performance indicators are determined and how what they do has an impact."
The newsletter also posts the monthly scores for courtesy and organization of the admitting and ED registration staffs. "Staff have become engaged to ensure that our scores remain high," says Dapelo-Garcia.
Every issue of the newsletter features an employee of the month, selected by the management team of patient admitting. "The awardee gets an employee of the month certificate, a $50 gift certificate, a pin, and is pictured on our Hall of Fame," says Dapelo-Garcia.
A newsletter is an inexpensive, simple way to inspire some friendly competition to motivate your patient access staff. At Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte, NC, the patient access department distributes a monthly newsletter featuring top performers for productivity and accuracy. Productivity is measured either by the number of accounts worked or registrations completed.Subscribe Now for Access
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