Nothing drags morale down more than repetitive, mundane tasks that don’t seem to have any value but have to be done constantly and consistently. In the healthcare world, some of these tasks are unavoidable—but they don’t have to be burdensome.
Odds are, every one of your employees has at least one list to manage. Maybe they’re responsible for the state of the waiting room before opening. Maybe they’re in charge of lining up the appropriate dental tools prior to a procedure. Maybe they’re tasked with making sure there are plenty of clean linens for your massage therapy patients. Maybe—or more than likely—their day-to-day duties include multiple lists. You don’t hire one person just to monitor the temperature of your medication refrigerators after all. Your valuable staff is capable of managing multiple tasks.
These checklists are probably completed without much thought. These are the things done every day, sometimes dozens of times a day, with little variation. They are tasks that can be repetitive and dull. And they are absolutely critical to the operations of your business. Your staff may not give them much thought, but they are crucial to key business metrics like patient care, patient safety, regulatory compliance, and brand standard adherence. These are the things that keep you in business and keep your clients safe. So how do you keep your employees engaged with these protocols, without miring them in a morass of seemingly pointless checklists?
The trick is to have your staff invested in these processes, no matter how minor or trivial they appear to be.
First, they have to see the value of these checklists. If the protocol is clear, consistent, and makes sense to everyone who has to use it, it will less likely be viewed as something random and inconsequential. Eliminating unnecessary steps and making sure the verbiage is accessible to everyone on your team goes a long way toward getting them to buy into it and see its value.
Equally important is communicating the goal of your protocols. You don’t have to break down the entire history of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 to explain why adhering to Protected Health Information standards is important. But if you explain the significance of having a checklist that ensures patient information is protected and kept private by doing simple things like making sure the patient sign-in sheet is managed appropriately, these tasks may seem more purposeful than just busy work to fill the day.
Finally, the tools you use to keep track of these small but important tasks should be state of the art. When your business uses advanced technology costing thousands of dollars to operate, tracking something with a dry erase board or pen and paper minimizes the significance of these tasks. Leveraging the tools available with the OpsAnalitica Platform demonstrates to your staff that you are willing to invest in their experience as your employees. We allow you to elevate the drudgery of the protocol of minutiae, keeping your employees engaged in your routine processes while at the same time ensuring that they are followed to the letter.
Routine operations can be dull and rote—there’s not a lot you can do to spice up an inventory audit—but with our tools you can help your staff see the value of the routine, while making it easier for them to update and keep track of all the little things that keep you in business and them happily employed.