Director toasts staff on 'New Year's Eve'
Achievements celebrated
Patient access staff at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center-Presbyterian in Philadelphia scheduled a New Year's Eve party at the end of June as a way of celebrating their achievements during the just-ended fiscal year, says Raina Harrell, CHAM, director, patient access and business operations.
"What do you do at New Year's Eve parties? You reminisce about the accomplishments of the past year," Harrell notes, describing her plans for the first-time event, which was to be part of the monthly staff meeting.
"We'll have decorations all over the room and ginger ale in plastic champagne glasses at each place," she says. "There will be party hats and noisemakers and I'll be toasting the staff for a wonderful fiscal year, for all of their achievements and hard work. It's a form of rewards and recognition"
The idea behind the party was to find an entertaining way to help employees see "where all their hard work is going," she explains. "Sometimes the staff perception is that management is changing things just to change them. Sometimes managers keep their goals to themselves and just implement processes. What I'm trying to do is show them that we do have the big picture in mind, that the things we asked them to do helped us put these improvements into effect.
"A lot of times staff hear about the things we do not achieve, and about where we're going and what the next thing is," Harrell points out. "Often as managers we fail to go back and say, 'This is what we've done.' Or we [recognize improvements] one by one, when they occur. By doing it all at once, it's a lot larger."
Harrell identified 32 achievements, spread throughout admissions, emergency department (ED) registration, the business office, and medical records and noted them on a large poster board. She's also put a description of each of the achievements on large stars, which employees will take turns pulling from a container, reading aloud, and later placing on the board.
Among the accomplishments being highlighted, she says, are the following:
- Integrated a new unit into the bed placement flow while still meeting admission targets.
- Achieved 98% accuracy in charting reports in medical records.
- Exceeded a 24-hour chart retrieval goal set at the beginning of the year.
- Implemented a flow coordinator position in outpatient registration.
- Reduced outpatient registration wait time from between 22 and 25 minutes to between five and seven minutes.
- Renovated the infusion suite registration area.
- Scrub (ensure accuracy of) 100% of ED registrations.
Included in the mix, Harrell says, will be a few lighthearted "accomplishment" listings, such as the baby that was born to one of the bed board operators.
Employees will get a copy of a flyer outlining the achievements, she adds, "so they'll each have their own personal brag book about the things their department has done in FY06."
"My big thing right now is motivating my staff, to have them feel the accomplishments that I see," Harrell says. "The object is for them to see the big picture, and to eliminate the silos."
Making 'resolutions'
Continuing the theme, the staff meeting at the end of July has been designated New Year's Day, Harrell says.
"Our theme for next year is 'Raising the Bar,'" she adds. "We'll be sitting and making New Year's resolutions. Managers will have identified their departmental targets — usually things like improving patient wait time or patient satisfaction scores — and will introduce those to staff so they can be onboard."
Employees will be asked to write resolutions regarding their individual work areas, Harrell says, which will describe "what their part will be" in achieving the goals of fiscal year 2007.
"It might be something that was discussed in the quality review and feedback they receive each week, or it may be to help a coworker do something," she suggests. "It could be a way in which they can impact the department manager's goal."
[Editor's note: Raina Harrell can be reached at (215) 662-9295 or by e-mail at [email protected].]
Patient access staff at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center-Presbyterian in Philadelphia scheduled a New Year's Eve party at the end of June as a way of celebrating their achievements during the just-ended fiscal year.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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