Do you know preferences of your OR staff?
Do you know preferences of your OR staff?
By Stephen W. Earnhart, MS
President and CEO
Earnhart & Associates
Dallas
For years, we have discussed what hospitals want in a surgery center, why surgeons are looking at other opportunities for their surgical cases, and what the patients are demanding. What about the staff at the surgery center? What are their preferences?
Over the past several months, I have spoken with operating room technicians, instrument processors, orderlies, transportation staff, receptionists, schedulers, and, of course, the staff nurses. I used a subset of the Earnhart Survey Group — a cross-section of same-day surgery staff, administrators, and physicians — in addition to the face-to-face discussions. What I learned in my admittedly unsophisticated poll amazed me, and it might surprise you.
The first question asked: "What is it that you want, more than anything else, out of your job in the surgery department?" A number of anticipated answers filled my head with this one: money, promotion, more time off, better working conditions . . . all that. I did get some of those responses, granted, but 85% used the exact same word for their answer: "consistency." They were not concerned with the hospital wars, mergers, or other issues they considered out of their control. They stated they wanted to do the job for which they were hired.
What does consistency’ mean?
If you look at synonyms for consistency, you will find words like stability, reliability, and regularity. In other words, those jobs are providing an income for the staff, and they need to know that the jobs will be consistent — or you will lose them. The staff needs to know that with the changes in reimbursement and with physicians looking for greater efficiencies, vigilant cost control, and physician satisfaction go a long way to secure their positions.
The next question for staff was: "What is the one thing that you would like to see more of in your position?" The answer from 78% of them was "better communication." When asked to expand, they had no problem saying that rumors about everything abound in their environment: rumors about losing their jobs, rumors about the facility losing money, etc. Well, I can relate to that. Rumors are part of the operating room environment. However, that should raise awareness that staff want to know what is going on.
There were many questions asked, but we only have space for one more: "The biggest challenge in health care today is ______?" There were many answers, but 90% related to "maintaining patient safety and quality of care in a cost-cutting environment." There is a response worth exploring!
Being creative, I tried to find some correlation to what the physicians are looking for. According to informal surveys, my firm has conducted, surgeons are looking first for efficiency in their surgical environment. Your staff are looking for consistency. Both groups are looking for stability and an effective workplace.
As far as the staff looking for better communication, that goes hand in hand with the surgeons looking for a say in the way the department or surgery center is run.
Discuss differences and resolve them. One of the best methods of resolving conflict is to confront it. That confrontation is difficult with a separate lounge for staff and another for surgeons and then another one still for anesthesia. If that is your physical layout, there is not much you can do about it now; however, you can have joint staff meetings or "rumor control" meetings once a month or PRN.
Everyone has things about their job that doesn’t meet their needs. Ask the staff what they are! Suggestion boxes remain a great way to get your thoughts in writing while remaining anonymous. Read each suggestion at the staff meeting and discuss. Communication is everything.
Lastly, both groups agree that without patient safety and superior quality of care — nothing else matters.
Maybe we aren’t so far apart after all . . .
(Editor’s note: Earnhart & Associates is an ambulatory surgery consulting firm specializing in all aspects of surgery center development and management. Earnhart can be reached at 5905 Tree Shadow Place, Suite 1200, Dallas, TX 75252. E-mail: surgery@ onramp.net. Web site: www.earnhart.com.)
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