Ideas That Work: Paint Brigade

Hopefully, we’ll never experience another pandemic and mandatory shutdown of elective surgery again. But if we do, we now know exactly how to keep our staff busy with meaningful work while they wait to reenter the OR. Instead of resorting to staffing cuts or furloughs during the peak crisis months of COVID-19 last spring, we kept our staff busy by having them complete projects that had been filling up our facility’s to-do list, which included everything from reorganizing storage and supply areas to sprucing up areas of high patient impact.

We even created a “Paint Brigade” to freshen up the facility, from highly visible spaces such as pre-op to high-volume storage rooms. We always knew just how valuable and versatile our perioperative staff was, but the pandemic truly showcased their ability to pivot on a dime and rise to any challenge placed before them. Now, we even get creative in ensuring they remain productive during open days in the surgical schedule.

Rick Metzger
Ascension Providence
Mobile, Ala.
[email protected]