• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Check out eight helpful tips for one of the JCAHO's most challenging standards (HR.3.10)

Accreditation Connection, July 23, 2004

1. Keep your performance evaluations realistic. A lot of people design wonderful extensive performance evaluations addressing every potential area of competency, but can't complete them on a timely basis because they are too complicated, says Bud Pate, REHS, practice director for clinical operations improvement for The Greeley Company, a division of Marblehead, MA-based HCPro, Inc., which publishes BOJ.

2. Post reminders. Stay on top of the timelines of performance evaluations, recommends Glenn D. Krasker, MHSA, president of Critical Management Solutions, a consulting firm that specializes in medical error risk reduction in Wilmington, DE. The key to success is discipline. It's best if evaluations are due on employee anniversary dates rather than all of the organization's evaluations being due on the same date, so the workload is spread out over 12 months, he says.

Give managers a list of their evaluations at least two months before the due date and note any late ones. Send completed evaluations to staff members on leave of absence and those on probation.

3. Carry out self-evaluations. Help reduce the burden on supervisors by getting employees to complete a self-assessment of their job performance prior to the performance evaluation, which the manager will amend before it is sent to human resources, says Katherine Chamberlain, CPHQ, a consultant in Gloucester, MA.

4. Hold your supervisor accountable. Tie in supervisors' evaluations and pay increases to the timeliness of their completion of staff evaluations, suggests Krasker.

5. Simplify the evaluation. Make sure your evaluations are not overly burdensome. Stick to a one- or two-page performance evaluation when possible. "If your evaluations are running at any more than that, you could be shooting yourself in the foot," says Pate.

6. Base evaluations on job descriptions. There is a lot of variation and interpretation among surveyors on what's considered a good performance evaluation, says a source close to the JCAHO. Basically you can't go wrong if you base it on the job description.

7. Automate the process. Online performance evaluations help streamline the process because the forms are easily accessible to everyone and can be filled out quickly, says Deb Ankowicz, RN, BSN, CPHQ, director of risk management for the University of Wisconsin Hospitals & Clinics in Madison, WI.

8. Have a blitz day. If managers are running late, reserve a conference room where they can work without interruptions, says Krasker.

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive