Deaf and Dumb

 

We had a great senior leadership retreat on Wednesday of this week.  One of the things that we did as an ice breaker was to give a personal experience on how something or someone has affected us and our leadership style.  This was a very easy topic to pick for me because a day rarely goes by without me thinking of it.

I was born with a congenital sensorineural hearing loss; my hearing is classified as a profound loss.  Which is one step below deaf; I am 93% deaf in both ears.  This has definitely caused a lot of hurdles in my life.  However, I have been received well in all circles with understanding people.  Though, there is one teacher during my junior high and high school years that whole heartedly tried to undermine my every action. 

He called me deaf and therefore, dumb.  That comment has resonated through me my entire life.  I went on to graduate from high school, get my AAS in Radiology, BS in Kinesiology and I am ¾ done with my Master’s in Administration…some of my classmates have called me “4.0”.  While it seems like I am bragging (which I am somewhat) my point is that any obstacle and hurdle can be overcome if you have determination. 

In fact I have put determination as my personal vision, mission and description word.

In health care it always takes a healthy dose of determination (pun intended) to give quality care, excellent customer service, perform under duress, make changes needed to create the “employer of choice and provider of choice”. 

Thanks for all of your hard work this week!

Who signs your PTO slip?

In my last blog post I mentioned that Trudy and I would be discussing organizational clarity at the next managers meeting.  Organizational clarity has a lot of different pieces that are important in not only MPMC's hierarchy, but patient safety and care as well.  This is important from front line staff to the Board of Directors.

 

Advis, S., A. (2010) states that "when hierarchical differences exist between health care clinicians, communication problems may occur. Those individuals that exhibit intimidating behaviors may further hinder communication between health care clinicians, causing delays in patient care particularly if the organization’s chain of command fails to outline structured communication techniques and clinical practice guidelines to follow when disruptive behaviors are encountered. Disruptive behaviors of health care clinicians have been linked to adverse events."

 

This amplifies the need for a clear chain of communication/command.  I use the communication/command interchangeably because largely that is what it is, a direction of communication flow for conflict resolution.  However, the number one first thing one should do when there are non-life-threatening urgent matters is always work the issue at hand out with the person of interest.  This always helps prevent wasteful, productivity killing, unnecessary use of the chain of communication.

 

Only then if the issue at hand cannot be resolved you should move up the chain of command.  You might wonder which area to go to...go to your immediate supervisor, the person "who signs your PTO slip".  That is the best place to start.  The following is the Senior Leadership chain of communication.  This is MPMC design and the Joint Commission best practice.  

 We will be rolling out the full chart at the managers meeting. 

 

 



!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

To:  IT@mpmc.org

Cc:  Cole white, Carmen Covington, David Solawetz, John Wisneski, Bethanie Reynolds, Sherri Solawetz
Bcc:  Board of Directors

 

From: Trampas Hutches

 

Subject: !!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

i NEED MY SCANNER FIXED ASAP!!!!

 

Warm Regards,

 

Trampas Hutches, COO
Middle Park Medical Center
970-724-3130

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 How would you feel if you received this e-mail?  Would you be offended, angry, hurt?  How do you think the Cc people feel about this?  I know the senior leadership would frown on this.  Not over the scanner, but the sender is acting like a petulant two-year-old.  The Board of Directors would be wondering why they even received this e-mail, let alone the use of the blind carbon copy.  Not to mention IT would not be likely to move on the issue just due to the simple fact of human nature.

Right now you are saying to yourself “oh nobody sends these types of e-mails”.  You would be very wrong.  Aside from the obvious issues all around with this e-mail, the lost productivity to stop the fall-out from these e-mails are huge wasteful and “un-Lean”. 

 There are two things wrong with this:

1.        If the issue has not been resolved rather than Cc and Bcc sending chain of command should be followed.  An e-mail should be sent to the direct supervisor of the department in question
2.       All e-mail etiquette rules were broken

 

In the next managers meeting Trudy and I will be rolling out e-mail etiquette training.  This will be part of a broader training of organizational clarity.  The one thing that makes all of this go is communication.  It all comes down to the “good ol Golden Rule”   “Love thy neighbor as thyself”. 

 

I am glad to back to writing my blog as I have written close to a 50 page project over the past month for my Master’s Degree program.  This is one of my favorite parts of my job, my blog. 

 

**Disclaimer**  The above e-mail was completely fictional.