Your job is growing in importance. From keeping up with ever-changing regulatory and compliance updates to managing patient satisfaction processes and overseeing staff, healthcare administrators like you fill an exceedingly demanding role. Not to mention, now you’re tasked with handling the electronic health records roll-out and other federally mandated updates. Given your full plate and maxed-out schedule, you need to know you can depend on the support of your team. In fact, it’s more important than ever to keep your team as efficient as possible.
Here are our top tips for increasing team efficiency and productivity without increasing your budget:
Hold Interdepartmental Training Sessions
Whether you’re working in a hospital, clinic or private practice, when you’re in a busy healthcare setting, it’s easy for employees to adopt tunnel vision. Team members become so focused on the tasks on their plate, they pay little attention to the work of others. More often than not, team members have little to no insight into the responsibilities of those in different roles or departments. Not only can this breed animosity between employees, but it can also disrupt efficiency.
By making an effort to facilitate communication between employees and departments, you can increase productivity and alleviate some of your own burden. In other words, set aside time to educate team members on the roles of others within the organization. This way, they’ll know who to approach when they require assistance or feedback or need to delegate and can go straight to the source, rather than coming to you.
Use Data to Fuel Staffing Decisions
Labor is one of the greatest expenses any healthcare organization faces and, when mismanaged, it’s also one of the greatest threats to both streamlined operations and patient satisfaction. As a healthcare administrator, it’s up to you to make sure you’re not over- or under-staffed.
The best way to optimize staffing is to look at your historical data. How many patients do you serve at various times of day? Are there marked variations in the number of patients per day of the week? Month? Season? Compare those numbers to the hours worked by your workforce and make adjustments where necessary. Additionally, consider areas in which it may be best to switch to flexible staffing by utilizing hourly or part-time employees.
Regularly Review Product Usage and Inventory
Another area of contention—and common productivity hurdle— for healthcare admins is your facility’s supply process. Everything from storage procedures to the type of products you order can affect your clinical team’s efficiency. For example, is your inventory well-labeled? Has the team been educated on proper storage so they return items to the correct spots? Are you utilizing the most efficient products and devices to meet patient needs?
Consider altering your process, such as adopting a more user-friendly inventory order. You may also choose to change up products as well. For example, switching to single patient Pain Ease to keep in overnight patients’ rooms instead of returning to the supply closet each time a nurse needs the product for an IV start or needle procedure, can work wonders. You’d be surprised by how many small changes can make a big difference.
Healthcare administrators have a lot on their plate, but opening the lines of communication between employees, optimizing staffing and revising your product inventory can help reduce inefficiencies. By streamlining these processes, you can free up some of your bandwidth to focus on other pressing matters.
Interested in implementing the new Pain Ease Single Patient Package? Learn all about this new solution in our free FAQ guide!