• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Giving employees a voice leads to facility success

Ambulatory Safety Monitor, December 30, 2004

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Ambulatory Safety Monitor!

Standards in the AAAHC's chapter four and the JCAHO's human resources chapter focus on quality of care, credentialing, competence, training, ethics, and continuity of care. Successful results in these areas depend on staff dedication to the organization, which you can achieve by decreasing your staff turnover. Sarah Cuneo, MBA, MHA, an administrator at Surgery Center of Maryland in Silver Spring, offers the following tips, which have worked at her multispecialty facility.

* Use a flat manager structure so that employees don't have to go through various supervisors to voice a concern. For example, your facility may not need more than an administrator and a director of nurses in management roles.

* Lead by example as a gesture of respect. It's not just about following policies and procedures, it's about connecting with your peers. Take out the trash once in a while, for example. Also, cross-train yourself. Learn how to do some of your employees' jobs. "If you do other jobs you will better understand the frustrations and bottlenecks your employees have, and you'll have a better sense of how to fix them," says Cuneo.

* Free up your nurses to work flexible schedules. At Cuneo's facility, 70% of nurses work part time. This results in a larger nursing staff, and gives the employees the freedom to pick their own hours. Also, with a larger staff, the administration doesn't institute mandatory days off; instead nurses can volunteer to work or not. This leads to staff satisfaction, Cuneo says.

* Make your staff investors in your organization. There are other ways to invest in a surgery center's success than financially. Host meetings where staff offer suggestions and ideas, or lead task forces to improve your organization's services. If staff feel they have the ability to make changes, they will feel they make a difference and will take ownership and loyalty in the workplace.

* Be kind, but firm in whatever approach you use to lessen staff turnaround. Don't allow employees to take advantage of a welcoming environment. Impose a zero-tolerance policy for all negative behavior in your facility.

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Ambulatory Safety Monitor!

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