3 0
O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 5
officer meets weekly with the anesthesia medical director to review
and address issues raised by the crew.
• Efficiency Pit Crew facilitates patient flow throughout the periopera-
tive area. They recently came up with the idea to have a staffer serve
as "trail boss," who helps transport patients and informs staff along
the way about their condition and special needs.
• Patient Satisfaction and Quality improvement Pit Crew ensures patient
needs are met and quality assurance goals are attained. The group
recently addressed concerns about our ability to get patients into the
OR on time. They obtained data and made changes based on their
findings that have reduced wait times and improved patient satisfac-
tion scores according to recent surveys.
Making it work
One staff member serves as the pit crew's driver. She leads the team,
communicates with the surgical manager (me, at our hospital), and
helps implement the ideas her team develops. Leadership skills, a
desire to be mentored and a sincere interest in making change happen
are important attributes for drivers to have. If you think someone
would make a great driver for a particular crew, suggest she volunteer
to run it.
The drivers recruit their own 5-to-7-member crew. People tend to
migrate toward what they're good at and their areas of interest, so it's
relatively easy to find fits for most members of your team while creat-
ing a crew.
Every staff has its overachievers, middle-of-the-road types and
Steady Eddies who want to perform their regular duties without going
above and beyond. The long-term goal is to have every staff member
serve on at least 1 crew each year. Participation shouldn't be required,
but consider making sitting on a crew a yearly goal that's part of annu-
S T A F F I N G
