During the summer months, there is a lot to celebrate. Whether the gathering is to recognize an achievement, a milestone, or simply to share a bit of comradery, parties, like productivity, bring people together. This year, while you are toasting a birthday, the great weather, or just spending time with family and friends, consider serving up one of the ALTIUS team’s productivity-approved cocktails/mocktails! Margarita Refreshing and bold, this zesty party staple has a long history, likely dating back to the 1930s, when there were no bottled mixes or blenders.
Tag: learning
Productivity: A Love/Hate Relationship
Love is in the air, and in healthcare, change is always on the horizon. A focus on productivity and workforce optimization may be part of your organization’s 2021 initiatives, but you may be personally struggling with getting behind the proposed strategies. You are not alone – many industry leaders and professionals have a love/hate relationship with performance improvement.
Celebrating Success
In these trying and unstable times, one thing has been evident; people have the innate ability to rise to a challenge with #positivity and professionalism. More than ever, it is critical that #healthcare leaders recognize the contributions and sacrifices their staff are making to ensure the health of the communities they live in and the prosperity of the organizations they serve. The ALTIUS team focuses on educating and elevating our clients, encouraging them to support each other by celebrating their #successes.
How do you determine the “right” productivity target?
At ATLIUS, we stress the importance of having the right person, in the right place, performing the right task, for the right clinical outcome. This approach is then ultimately supported by having the right productivity target in place. The question is, how do you determine each departmental target so that it results in the highest level of efficiency and the best overall outcomes? While there are various ways to establish productivity targets, we have seen the strongest performers follow our primary approach to target setting: varying targets by department.
Management Scare Tactics that Backfire
Many healthcare leaders adopt a "tough love" approach when managing employee performance and expectations. This method may work well for some staff members, but not all will embrace the negativity it can create. Understanding your team and the styles they respond positively to is critical in realizing continued operational success and employee satisfaction.
Keepin’ It Productive
We are all familiar with the term “death by meeting.” It refers to the seemingly endless cycle of leaders having meetings to prepare for other meetings during which strategies are discussed that require more meetings to implement! It’s exhausting to say, let alone live. Instead of having a positive impact on operations, it has quite the opposite effect.
What does ‘Best Practice’ Mean in Healthcare?
What does "Best Practice" mean in the healthcare environment? Just as in any other field, "Best Practice" is the commitment to using all the knowledge, processes, data, and technology at one's disposal to ensure success. However, let's take that one step further and note that this success must be realized in the most efficient manner possible to make a difference to your organization's bottom line. Controlling costs through the proper utilization of resources and minimization of waste are ways that hospitals and health systems are achieving "Best Practice" status.
Eliminating Waste
The U.S. Healthcare System is currently wasting an estimated $765 Billion (23% of what is spent) per year due to inefficient operations! Surprisingly, the majority of this waste is not being generated by pricing failures and supply chain issues, but through workflow and labor management deficiencies.
Embracing Accountability
When the ALTIUS team has an initial conversation regarding performance improvement with a hospital’s senior leaders, they are often unsure of what led to their current financial challenges. The reality is that it is never one decision, one hire, or one situation that deteriorates an organization’s bottom line. It can be the choices made day-to-day within the silos of the organizational structure, delaying difficult decisions, and/or a lack of accountability that leads to the overall decline.
Avoiding Productivity Pitfalls
Managing labor has become a delicate balancing act between providing the right level of staff and keeping expenses down. Implementing a meaningful staffing model while maintaining the unique values, beliefs, and overall culture of the organization should be a hospital's primary focus to ensure sustainability. Productivity, however, is a concept that is not fully understood within the healthcare industry.