understand the nature and scope of their jobs. In addition to Appendix
L, download Appendix Z (osmag.net/rN4KZg), which offers emer-
gency preparedness guidelines for all providers.
For you hospital leaders, "The Joint Commission's Electronic
Accreditation & Certification Manuals," which includes all of the stan-
dards and requirements for TJC accreditation and certification, is likely
your best bet. For a fee, you can download it here: osmag.net/6JYkbT.
Manage meetings like a boss
Whether it's a short staff meeting or a comprehensive board
retreat, develop your agenda, stay on topic and respect everyone's
schedules by beginning and ending the meeting on time. One tactic:
Pause the meeting with 10 minutes left on the schedule and ask atten-
dees if they are confident the meeting will end on time with all issues
addressed. If not, poll attendees again to determine if all are willing to
exceed the allotted time, or if you should schedule another meeting to
finalize the matters at hand.
Monitor supply costs like a hawk
The average surgical center racks up $1.5 million annually in
operating expenses. Of that, $464,000 is spent on drugs and supplies.
Use every tool at your disposal to keep supply-chain expenses in
check. There's no shortage of software solutions promising to do just
that, but beware: Choosing the wrong procurement and inventory
management system will actually add work for you.
I once worked at a facility where the system was so inefficient we'd
have to take lots of extra steps to order and track our supplies. Our pur-
chasing agent would often end up taking home a huge stack of paper
invoices to work on after hours. I'd then have to manually enter them
into QuickBooks. It was an exercise in redundancy. Insist that your
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