T E AC H Chapter 6
Involving Providers in Administrative Functions
D
r. Barnes was working to fix something again. Three of us from the catheterization lab were asked to be part of a task force, as she called it. We groaned. This probably meant more work, as if we didn’t have enough to do! But Doc had noticed that our turnaround time between cases was higher than she liked. Mr. Nelson from the corporate office suggested that perhaps we needed to work longer hours to fit in the number of cases required by our budget. Thankfully, Doc disagreed. At the first task force meeting, she told us that she believed we could figure out a solution. She was confident that we could manage our own workflow to be efficient and get home on time. It was difficult to understand what we could do at first, but with her encouragement, we started digging into the problem. Doc was right! By implementing a few changes in the way we staffed our lab and assigned the patients, we reduced our turnaround time from forty minutes to only eighteen. After that, we had a new appreciation for Dr. Barnes. She was pretty good outside the lab too! Better yet, she understood our issues and believed in our capabilities. The word administration has gotten a bad reputation among physicians. We immediately think of the hospital or clinic business leaders with whom we don’t get along very well. This is unfortunate. Let me be clear; I am not using administration as a synonym for clerical 83
