How can you save money? Use volunteers, students
Center also cuts laundry, waste disposal costs
Chesapeake Surgery Center in Salisbury, MD, has just started a volunteer program, and it hit the jackpot: One of the three volunteers who have signed up is a retired nurse who worked in a postanesthesia care unit. That nurse will serve refreshments in the discharge area and help patients to their cars. Another volunteer is a young woman who wanted tasks to do two days a week. That volunteer performs clerical work, but she has expressed interest in working in the supply room and cleaning instruments, which would require training.
"She came just at the right time . . . because we no longer needed two full-time people at the admission desk, and one of the ladies left," says Joseph Walters, PA-C, administrator. "It was advantageous to us not to have to replace her when the volunteer was able to pick up the slack two days a week."
The tasks are delegated to volunteers according to their expressed interests and comfort level matched to their experience and/or education, Walters says. "So far, this has worked," he says.
One advantage of using volunteers is that they want to be there, and the quality of work often reflects that enthusiasm, he points out. One potential disadvantage is that it might be difficult to "discipline" or counsel volunteers whose work is not up to standard, Walters says. "However, one could not leave volunteers to their own means without any follow-up of their work," he says. Also, managers must emphasize patient confidentiality when bringing in volunteers, Walters emphasizes.
The center also employs high school students during the summer and college students in the evening to perform mundane tasks, such as purging record files and updating files in the computer. "[Those tasks] are repetitive in nature, but require amounts of time that regular clerical staff cannot allot," he says. "Both of these workers are happy with short hours, minimum pay, and they do not need benefits because they are usually covered by their parents."
Consider these other innovative ideas for saving money:
• Put your money where your trash is. Walters found an innovative way to reduce the amount and cost of biohazardous waste disposal. On the top of the biohazardous waste trash receptacle, he placed a dollar bill. On the top of the trash can where all other waste goes, he placed a penny. The penny trash container is "cheap trash," Walters says. "The dollar trash can cost $50 a box to dispose of," he says. "The dollar bill gets people’s attention."
• Have inmates wash your laundry. Walters has been working on a solution to the high cost of washing laundry at his surgery center. Recent guidelines from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) allow facilities to wash their own laundry, as long as special detergent is used, he points out.
Walters has initiated discussions with his local correctional institution, which already washes 3,000 sheets and blankets for inmates every week. He asked whether they would be willing to wash the surgery center’s 250 sheets and blankets on a weekly basis. The details are being finalized, but the prison contact expressed interest if the center provided the detergent and transported the laundry. The prison’s fee would be paid to the inmates’ welfare fund that provides money after their incarceration ends. "If we buy the special detergent, and they get OSHA training for infectious waste and wear gloves, they should have no problem," Walters says.
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