been achieved, sustaining a new way of doing business can be chal-
lenging," wrote Dr. Ninan in Cureus. "Often, new initiatives are met
with minimal staff acceptance ("buy-in"), little effort and even pas-
sive-aggressive sabotage."
Sound familiar? Dr. Ninan will detail the keys to what he calls a "cul-
turally-focused change process." In this session, you'll learn new ways
to organize your staff, rooms and culture to keep surgeons and staff
happy and productive — now and over time. A few key points:
• Communication. Turnaround time interfaces with different teams
— housekeeping, nursing, anesthesia, surgery — and communication
among them is key.
• Realistic goals. You don't want your people to have to sprint
from beginning to end. You want them to be able to work steadily
and consistently in a safe manner. "There is a certain sustainable
pace at which you can comfortably, safely and consistently do a
good job," says Dr. Ninan. "And I don't think we want to push people
past that, for the primary reason that's it's not a sustainable model
and it will induce more errors."
• Workflow fundamentals. Your workflows must be laid out effi-
ciently. Reduce waste and introduce parallel processes when you can.
• The human component. Organizational culture should be more of
a reflection of what you have rather than being able to dial up a cer-
tain culture.
"A significant part of any operational change is looking at that human
component and engaging the actual stakeholders in ways that make their
jobs easier to do," says Dr. Ninan. "Engage them as generators of the
solution and have them drive the details."
OSM
2 4 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J U N E 2 0 1 9