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Stepwise Success

A Thousand Words
May 18, 2009 6:21 AM by Scott Warner
Incident reports are commonplace in healthcare, meant to record the facts. But do they? I've written about write-ups, including their presentation as conclusions and use as political bats. If you've worked in healthcare any length of time, you're well Read More...
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Perception is Reality
May 12, 2009 6:08 AM by Scott Warner
"Everyone in the lab goes to break at once," a nurse manager once told me, "and the lab turnaround time goes to pot." Apparently, she had seen the laboratory staff walk by on their breaks. A complaint presented as a conclusion is already proven in the Read More...
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Intangibles
March 30, 2009 4:38 AM by Scott Warner
Consider two chemistry analyzers. The first requires a lot of hands-on time to run and maintain, and the reagent cost is per aliquot. You're paying for reagent used for calibration, quality control, troubleshooting and waste. The second analyzer is a Read More...
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How Many Managers?
March 4, 2009 10:12 AM by Scott Warner
The other day at a department head meeting when a person used the phrase, "... the 35 of you ," it got me thinking. How many managers do we need? I work in a critical access hospital with 25 beds. We have one laboratory, one pharmacy and one plant manager. Read More...
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Why Make Patients Wait?
February 11, 2009 1:39 PM by Scott Warner
We recently consolidated laboratory workstations, creating a second order entry station in the process. This opens the possibility of bypassing the normal patient queue of order entry before collecting samples and drawing some patients as soon as they Read More...
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I Got My Answer From the Nurse
January 28, 2009 3:02 PM by Scott Warner
A hospital receptionist concerned about a lab report on her son came into the lab asking what a "bicarb" level meant. I printed a page from Lab Tests Online , a resource I often use for patients. When I walked it down the hall to her desk, she was putting Read More...
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Communication
January 22, 2009 8:53 AM by Scott Warner
Communication is everyone's panacea for everything. - Tom Peters , author of In Search of Excellence Ain't that the truth. But communication is also blamed for much failure. Management with tsk, "If only we had had more meetings, more blurbs in the newsletter, Read More...
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Planning Next Year
December 30, 2008 7:51 AM by Scott Warner
Is it that time of year again? According to a U.S. government site , some top New Year's resolutions are to lose weight, manage debt, save money, get a better job ... The latter links to a page where you can find your state's job bank. But a "better" Read More...
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The Purpose of Discipline
December 16, 2008 8:39 AM by Scott Warner
"The purpose of discipline," a nurse once told me, "is to correct behavior." According to one article in HR Magazine , the purpose of discipline is "to create and maintain a productive, responsive workforce" to "rehabilitate" employees. And one human Read More...
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Are You Really Short Staffed?
December 4, 2008 7:43 AM by Scott Warner
In these days of real and impending staffing shortages, we have to be heard. Sharing press clippings about shortages, program closures and retirement predictions is a good way to set the smoke on the horizon. But it can still be hard to convince administration Read More...
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Millennials and Perennials
November 20, 2008 8:11 AM by Scott Warner
According to a Wikipedia article about them, 97 percent own a computer, 94 percent own a cell phone and 76 percent use instant messaging. Morley Safer described them on 60 Minutes as arriving at work around noon in flip-flops, expecting a manager to talk Read More...
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Group Self-Esteem
November 17, 2008 8:25 AM by Scott Warner
Just as individuals have self-esteem --a sense of worth--so do groups. This is more than simply feeling good; it reflects competence, confidence and assertiveness. Individuals with low self-esteem, as described by the National Association for Self-Esteem Read More...
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Big Brother Has Mail
October 6, 2008 9:17 AM by Scott Warner
I recently heard a remarkable confession. A staff member told me, "I just assume you're reading all my e-mails." Her husband, a mid-level manager in a nearby city, routinely reads employee e-mails as company policy. But another person said "THEY" are Read More...
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Get Support
October 2, 2008 8:13 AM by Scott Warner
A few winters ago, I attended management training in Portland. It was a snowy, blustery day that turned to sleet and freezing rain by nightfall. I'll never forget that long drive home. But it stands out for another reason. A new manager at the meeting Read More...
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Meeting Fatigue
September 15, 2008 4:02 PM by Scott Warner
The other day at work, I joked we needed to form a committee to appoint a sub-committee to develop an agenda for yet a third committee that would, in time, determine the definition of 2 p.m. We all waste time in non-productive meetings when we could be Read More...
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