Keep your business on track, improve accountability

In addition to setting expectations, they must also overcome barriers. To many people, accountability carries a negative connotation. However, Halley doesn't see it that way. "We cannot use accountability as a method to get rid of someone," said Halley.

An organization must have "pure motives"--which is the goal of improving the business--to establish a true culture of accountability, he said.

Beyond accountable administration and management, it is critical that you have a strong team of employees who work to bring about change. "If we harbor 'C,' or average players it's tough to create a culture of accountability," said Halley.

Identifying weak employees

Halley offered a simple tool that is designed to help managers determine how employees are affecting their organizations. Managers should think about each person on staff and determine whether he or she is

Put each of your employees in one of these categories. Then determine whether you can train them to rise to the needed standards or whether you might need to seek out new members for your team. Your organization should look to hire and retain only "A" players and reassign or fire those who are not meeting that standard.

Setting expectations

As important as it is to track employee performance, you must first set clear expectations and goals.

It's impossible to hold people accountable if you don't have a solid grasp of what staff are expected to do and when they are supposed to do it. It is critical to establish

Employee progress should be tracked regularly. "Everybody needs to be held accountable weekly by somebody," said Halley.

Successful delegation

Delegation can be used as a means of establishing accountability, said Halley. Managers should assign tasks to employees and track performance. But keep in mind that delegation is not

Effective delegation provides training and development opportunities for your employees.

It should also help allocate resources to help achieve your organization's goals, said Halley.

Effective delegation begins as part of short-term planning.

The manager must decide what tasks can be delegated and set goals regarding the desired outcome and the time frame required to achieve that outcome. It should also be decided who the delegate will be.

After making these decisions, the manager should

Barriers to accountability

Holding employees accountable isn't as easy in practice as it is in theory. There are several barriers, said Halley.

Attitude is often one of the major barriers to achieving a culture of accountability. Many employees will have the attitude that "this isn't high school, [I'm an adult]," said Halley. Others barriers include the following:

You must be willing to confront these issues to establish a culture of accountability.

Halley listed the following benchmarks that indicate whether an organization has truly attained a culture of accountability:

Insider source:

Marc Halley, MBA, president and chief executive officer of Ambulatory Management Services, Inc., Westerville, OH.

Editor's note

In the July issue of RACRI, the p. 7 story "Designated Coders can Perk up your Bottom Line" indicated that "there is not much specific training available for radiology coders." We received several responses from readers who pointed out that there are in fact a number of training resources available, including a certification program for radiology coders.

In addition to the radiology coding seminars and educational coding products offered by the Radiology Business Management Association, there are also a number of other resources offered by the American College of Radiology, the Society for Interventional Radiology, and other resources.

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