Ideas That Work: Group Effort

Leadership at our facility believes in hiring the best people possible — then letting them do their jobs. To make this happen, we don't employ traditional pecking orders or a typical hierarchical structure. Medical reps talk to our surgical techs if they want to sell us something, and surgeons talk to the techs if they want us to buy something. We think central sterile techs know what's needed in the OR, so they're in charge of ordering supplies. We make sure our nurses rotate throughout the facility to break up the monotony of working in one place. Our pre-admission staff member has the autonomy to call a surgeon's office to cancel a case if they notice something worrisome about a patient. Our radiology tech performs administrative tasks, and, at the end of the day, our medical assistant provides an extra set of eyes on the next day's charts.

Leadership still makes the final calls. Ultimately, however, their job is to support the staff, not to have a support staff. Having employees telling leadership what's needed, instead of staff being told what to do from the top down, gets everyone invested, makes for happier employees and results in better clinical outcomes.

Joel Biskup
AUA Surgical Center
Amarillo, Texas
[email protected]