Time Management remains the operations’ most precious resource.
Simple changes in managing healthcare treatment teams can make a difference. Simple changes including: setting agendas and limiting meeting times can improve organizational efficiency.
Once a Team understands the importance of time management they can make fundamental changes in the way they work together to achieve time management.
Organization Policies and Procedure can be readily be transformed into a streamlined, series of coordinated materials aimed at improving time management within the operation.
Harvard Business School has shown that fewer meetings can improve quality decision-making and improve clinical and financial performance outcomes.
Once meetings end, participants often take away different interpretations of the organization decision making. All Meetings should begin with a formal Agenda of the subjects discussed along with, an assigned individual responsible for the meeting. Ideally, minutes should follow within a day of the meeting and include a decision timetable with identified supervisors who are responsible for specific objectives.
Time management Issues for management to address:
- Length of time spent in team and educational meetings.
- Utilizing costly Clinical Staff time is unwisely spent engaged in re-writing company policy manuals.
- Team members usually waste time by not fully understanding CARF Accreditation Standards.
- Agenda’s for staff meetings should be sent out in advance and must be focused to be useful.
- Time is usually wasted by not reviewing meeting department goals and the strategies to achieving them
- Most management meetings are called for the the purposes of “information sharing”.
- Group input”, or “group think” and is usually spent wastefully.
Note that the ACG Group offers an initial Phone Conference on CARF Issues and an operations assessment at no cost.
