Week seven has literally flown by; with the recent loss of one of our executives,
this was the first month end closings where so much more fell on my plate than
in times past. I never mind learning on the fly, and I was pleasantly surprised
that others were able to step up their game and help carry the weight.
This week reinforced that we have to remember that making decisions in a vacuum
or silo doesn’t work in the real world; as we learn to listen to the stories of
others, we find that even under the most stressful of circumstances, that as we
listen, everyone can begin to identify the best solution for all stakeholders (Levine, 2009, p. 156) .
Six months ago, we identified needs in our Physical Therapy service line;
the person performing the functions of registration is not an expert, has never
been trained, and really is more of a receptionist role that previous
supervisors attempted to expand. We began researching how we can justify hiring
yet another person to help support us, now that our vendor was closing its
doors on the area. Because I had worked closely with other projects in the
area, it was not coincidental that I was able to identify that the impact to
this service line would be huge to us, and I needed support. However, many
other departments deemed this as witch hunt and blame game.
The reality was that the receptionist was not the right person for the
job; because she was not trained in the practice of admitting patients, she was
not consistently calling for authorizations, sending over medical records in a
timely fashion, and was never brought into compliance changes that affect this
area. This resulted in tens of thousands of dollars a year in net revenue being
written off, all unknown to anyone. As we sat in meeting, everyone pointed
fingers, tensions were high, nobody wanted to accept responsibility, and trying
to justify the hiring of another person when we just went through layoffs would
be next to impossible. As everyone continued fighting, blaming, and supporting
a unified impasse with all other departments holding the Physical Therapy to
blame, we were getting nowhere fast. The meeting ended with lots of laundry
aired out, but no solutions and healing took place. Furthermore, we were
exactly where we started.
When I reflect on the decision to have the meeting, in my mind I had it
all planned out. I thought the other department heads would be able to
professionally articulate what their needs and frustrations were, not the anger
fest we had. We should have made ground rules and set time limits. People should
have been given an agenda and been prepared to speak about specifics
surrounding the challenges…not have made it personal and attacking other team
members. I should have taken into account all the stakeholders; we needed
administrative support, we needed the patient perspective, the financial impact
perspective, as well as the human element. Without these considerations in
mind, there was no way to bridge the gap between how we needed to collaborate
and move forward, in comparison to how angry and resentful everyone felt about the
therapy department.
This week has shown that long-term collaborations are far more important
than the money lost; I needed to re-frame my focus on the proof that things
needed to change. I got caught up in the money and the proof to try to gain
support, subsequently ignoring the emotional side of the entire picture from
everyone’s involved perspective. I certainly learned the hard way that “First,
you listen and learn what others need. Then you learn what you need” (Levine, 2009, p. 205) . I also learned that
prior to forming a team meeting that is supposed to be handled in the spirit of
resolution and collaboration, I need to share what my intent and vision of
gathering everyone together to get on the same page in order for us to all
realize what each other’s desired outcomes center around what we need to do in order for us to be able to collaborate and work effectively in the future (Levine, 2009, p. 189).
Until we blog again!
Reference
Levine, S. (2009). Getting to Resolution: Turning
conflict into collaboration. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers,
Inc.
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