Company description::
January 15 2004 -- The Safety Committee at McKay Dee Hospital in Ogden, Utah found that, while their reporting method met the requirements for local, state, JCAHO and other regulatory agencies, the system failed to acknowledge the accomplishments and hard work of individual staff members. Unlike managers, who have a general idea of the work done by staff members throughout the department, staff members themselves have limited knowledge of the daily activity of those outside their own domain. With the goal of establishing cross-departmental appreciation among the staff, the Safety Committee wanted to find a way to give staff members the opportunity to demonstrate their productivity that often goes beyond the guidelines of their responsibility.
Building off the Safety Report that was already in use, the Safety Committee created a more detailed template to be filled out monthly by technicians. Each staff member is then required to present the report at a monthly meeting, giving the staff a chance to be recognized for their work, learn about the work of their peers, and finally ask questions and challenge the information presented.
"With each member reporting, staff can compare data, as it is presented and feel better about themselves and what they are doing. More importantly, they learn about what challenges the other members are facing that are not intuitively obvious," said Scott James, Clinical Engineer at McKay Dee Hospital.
According to James, the Safety Committee's new reporting method has "enhanced, maybe even assured the mutual respect among the staff, [and] increased the open communication, guaranteed by the participation of everyone during every meeting…" The meetings also enable the staff members to ask their peers directly for assistance in the event that they are unable to complete all required duties.
This idea is part of The Healthcare Management Council’s collection of “Successes and Good Ideas,” articles highlighting successful performance improvement measures in health care. For more information on these articles and other HMC hospital networking events visit http://www.HMC-Benchmarks.com/hospital/ccs.shtml.
Contact: Shelley Burns (SBurns@HMCOnline.net)
The Healthcare Management Council, Inc.
Area: Hospital Performance Improvement
Web site: http://www.HMC-Benchmarks.com
Phone: (262) 242-9471 |
