Marketing Your Center to Other Surgeons
A flyer that touts the benefits of your facility is a great recruiting tool.
Here's a simple yet effective way to promote your facility to surgeons you're hoping to recruit. First, figure out what differentiates you in the marketplace. Find some strength in your organization. What's the one thing that surgeons can get at your facility but no place else? High-def ORs. Your great staff. Free lunch. Preferred parking. For us, it's our 2 on-site Yale-trained anesthesiologists who are aces at regional anesthesia and manage the place like it's their own.

Your next step is to build that idea up into a flyer that you can leave behind when you call on physicians. I call it a cut sheet. Ours is a double-sided, professionally printed, glossy flyer that has a biographical blurb about both our anesthesiologists and some copy on how our ASC caters to surgeons and patients. I paid a printer about $750 for 500 copies. This simple marketing tool has proven to be quite effective in helping to distinguish our ASC and attract surgeons to our center. Long after you've gone, the flyer and the impression it makes will remain.

Pamela Hudson, DM, RN
Administrator
Paoli Surgery Center
Paoli, Pa.
[email protected]

Rx for Your Staff: More Responsibility, Money
Here's a program that lets your full-time staff earn 30 cents more per hour and gives them some ownership over the day-to-day operations of your center. We call it the Officer Program. Here's how it works. You delegate oversight of certain frontline issues, such as infection control, safety and drug supplies, to full-time staff members, who earn 30 cents more per hour for taking on the "officer" role. For example, the safety officer plans and runs emergency drills and fields questions from staff members when minor safety issues arise, while the medical records officer monitors patient records to make sure they're being documented correctly and thoroughly.

This program, still in its early stages, has yielded several benefits. First, it lets staff maintain a full 40-hour workload each week at a time when declining case volumes have forced us to cut back on hours. It's also an opportunity for them to earn a little extra in their paychecks, since we haven't been able to give raises. It's given their morale — and paychecks — a lift. Finally, it relieves some of my own administrative workload, letting me focus more intensely on the most pressing issues without having to stop to deal with the little disruptions that occur on the floor.

Kathi Chervinko, RN, BSN
Surgical Nurse Administrator
Lakewood Surgery Center
Grand Rapids, Minn.
[email protected]

A Short Course on Patient Relations
Life in the Waiting Room
Patients hate to wait. There are undoubtedly other places they'd rather be on the day of surgery, but when they're in the reception area, they're anxious above all else to get started. Even our patient surveys with reports of great outcomes and satisfaction scores of 9 or 10 include complaints about long waits.

But we've found that a smile, an introduction, a handshake from a staff member — anyone and everyone who sees the patient waiting when they first come in — can go a very long way in sweetening that time, as compared to a cold acknowledgement at the front desk and instructions to wait in the hushed reception area. With a friendly welcome, you're conveying to them that you do care about their outcome, not that you're just handling a transaction. (I always tell them, "I have a vested interest in you doing well, because if you do well, I have a job tomorrow.")

Additionally, if a situation arises that pushes back their case, a personal explanation to let them know about the delay is always appreciated. A surgery center is a business, after all, and like all businesses it occasionally hits delays. Patients understand this. But being a business also means you've got to treat your customers with the respect they deserve.

James Dredla, CRNA
Chief Nurse Anesthetist
Yankton Medical Clinic ASC
Yankton, S.D.
[email protected]

Introduce Yourself to Your Patients
Just because we're administrators doesn't mean we can't conduct our own post-operative rounds. I make an effort to talk with every one of our weight-loss surgery patients and I don't hesitate to give each one my business card. Some of our patients are surprised: They've never actually met a vice president of nursing at the other facilities where they've received care. I've found that this contact gives patients ownership. It lets them know that I'm really here and that I'm looking out for them. I certainly don't make the rounds to intimidate my staff, but I know that if they see my card at the patient's bedside, they'll be sure to deliver quality care.

Dori Nelms-Ossman, RN, MBA, BSN, CNAA, CBN
Vice President of Clinical Services
Barix Clinics of Ohio
Groveport, Ohio
[email protected]

Pediatric 911: Color Coding Enables Swift Response
We've devised a 2-part process to help us respond promptly and efficiently to pediatric emergencies. First, when a pediatric patient presents for surgery, we enter the child's weight into a computer program that calculates exact dosages for emergency drugs according to Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) guidelines. We print, label and color-code this report to correspond with the appropriate pediatric emergency bag containing equipment and medications measured out for the patient's particular size and weight. The report gets added to the patient's chart, and then the child's ID band is also marked with the color of the corresponding emergency kit. This color-coding system lets our nurses quickly retrieve the correct resuscitation kit for the child and have the proper size of equipment and drug doses on hand in case of an emergency.

Lisa York, BSN, MSN
Director of Nursing
Hunterdon Center for Surgery
Flemington, N.J.
[email protected]

Cut Down Waste When You Clean Up Storage
During slow days or in the downtime between assignments, have your staffers empty and wipe down the insides of the storage drawers and cupboards in your ORs and supply rooms. While they're doing that, they can take note of the drugs, supplies and implants with soon-to-arrive expiration dates. This way they're tidying up and ensuring the usability of your supplies every month.

Once the job's done and the expiring items are removed from the clinical areas, review the outdated items and determine why they're lingering on the shelf. Why aren't they being used? Which surgeon requested them? What procedures are they used for? Maybe the surgeon no longer practices at your facility, or uses an alternative to the item now. Maybe it was a component to obsolete or replaced equipment. Maybe your stock's not being rotated properly, or you need to re-evaluate and adjust your par levels.

Since we've applied this proactive effort to our inventory management, we've seen fewer and fewer expiring items showing up during our reviews. Plus, everyone gets to play a role in our facility's cost savings.

Lori Sterbenk, RN, CNOR
Clinical Resource Manager
Grand Valley Surgical Center
Grand Junction, Colo.
[email protected]