By Omar Arafat, MBA, CRA, RT(R)
With information becoming so easily available in today’s health care landscape, it can be a daunting task to find organization throughout the chaos each day brings. This is why it is critical to have a department framework to help prioritize tasks and help leaders make decisions with intention. University Hospitals’ Diagnostic Institute in Cleveland, Ohio, has implemented an operating and communications plan that intends to simplify and align actions with purpose. The best outcomes derive from highly engaged teams who are on the same page and understand that within a rapidly changing environment comes an inherent need to be organized.
Meeting Standards
Leadership roles often come with frequent and crucial meetings for a vast assortment of matters. It’s often noticeable that more meetings is not synonymous with more results, in fact, it can mean the exact opposite. To no one individual’s fault, it’s not always an easy undertaking guiding a group of stakeholders (often times remotely) to come to a collective decision or find resolution. Starting on time, starting at an inconvenient time (seriously, who puts meetings on at 4:30 p.m. on Friday?), talking in circles, and even forgetting the main topic are all common reasons why most leaders find the majority of meetings ineffective. The Diagnostic Institute streamlines meetings in several ways: 25 and 45 minute increments, no meetings before 8 a.m., after 4 p.m., after 12 p.m. on Fridays and no standing meetings on Fridays. Starting on time, using a standard meeting template for meeting minutes, topics and action items contribute to effective meetings that gives all involved a chance to prepare in between the next gathering and come prepared. Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation or Resolution (SBAR) is a tool that must be used when communicating about critical situations. Within four sentences or less, key participants are now able to resourcefully communicate without getting off topic or sending a short novel that makes everyone late to their next meeting.
Email Etiquette
Emails sent with high importance require response within 24 hours, while general email requests require 48 hours (minimum acknowledge of receipt and estimated ETA of response). By following these guidelines, there won’t be a need to hunt down the individual who hasn’t responded in months until it eventually turns into a meeting or falls of the radar completely. In addition, today’s lunch plans do not qualify as an email of high importance. The Diagnostic Institute helps leaders understand what truly should be high importance by considering items such as strategic alignment, resource availability, patient and/or employee impact, compliance and risk management, and return on investment (ROI). Mission critical communications response time caps at one hour and should come in a form of more direct communication such as a phone call, text message or instant message. Mission critical items include safety, quality, reputation or operational issues.
Conclusion
The radiology field has been progressing rapidly over the years through the use of enhanced equipment and highly sophisticated technology. The framework of internal operations and communication, however, has not progressed at the level needed to keep our teams engaged. It’s absolutely necessary to equip our leaders to have the time to support our most important asset: our teams.
– Omar Arafat, MBA, CRA, RT(R), is a radiology manager with Manager, Radiology University Hospitals Parma Medical Center.
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