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People & Opinions |

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Worth Repeating |
| "Many carts available today
were designed originally as garage tool boxes and converted for use in
healthcare."
Mas Kang, senior vice president, marketing and
business development,
Artromick International
"Education amongst all disciplines—anesthesia personnel, peri-operative
nurses, and surgeons—is needed. Policies, protocols, and procedures
must be in place for preventing surgical burns. Energy sources are not
the root cause. Oxygen-enriched atmosphere or flammable liquids that
are not allowed to dry are two of the most common causes of OR fires."
Roger Odell, co-founder, chairman, and director of
Encision Inc.
"These CMS reimbursement changes certainly provide an opportunity
for Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) programs to once again show
their enormous merit; however, the organization must be able to
capture the true cost of HAIs so that the cost-benefit of prevention
can be accurately measured. The Infection Prevention Specialist must
also possess the skills necessary to make that case."
Suzanne M. Pear, RN, Ph.D, CIC, healthcare
epidemiologist, and associate director for infection prevention
practices, scientific affairs and clinical education, Kimberly-Clark
Health Care
"My ideal sterilization indicator would be a bio-electronic device
which would communicate directly with independent controls to monitor,
record and control the process. Such a device would provide real time
response to the sterilization process and at the same time assess
process lethality to a defined living organism. I believe this is
doable if we understand the mechanism of kill for a given
sterilization process."
Charles Hancock, medical device sterilization
consultant,
Charles O. Hancock
Associates Inc. |
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Be the servant leader of your hospital by
Marc G. Higgins
Sometimes, it
can feel like the Director of Materials Management in a hospital is an
unappreciated, organizational step-child of Patient Care, Operations,
Administration and Finance. We are asked to improve processes, enforce
contracts, standardize supplies and reduce everything when our customers
seem to want more.
Do you ever feel like we are reverse sales reps inside our own
organization? It seems like we are always trying to sell something to
someone and hope they support what the organization has chosen to implement.
CFOs and Finance Directors demand savings and may or may not agree that we
have very limited control over the inputs to many of our process models. SPD
and Central Supply are among the first to take FTE reductions, when JIT
inventory models can be a wash in-terms of functional work load. Have you
ever tried to convince Administration that our actual process volume is not
census driven like Nursing and Clinical Operations?
So, what do we do as healthcare materials professionals to thrive and not
simply survive in a complex environment? First, we must own one simple fact;
our hospitals are not in business to run a Materials Management
department. However, by us running an efficient, customer driven and
productive Materials Department, life for the clinicians we serve is better
and patient outcomes are better as well. We too, are a part of patient care,
because without the supplies and services Materials Management provides, it
would be very difficult for the physicians and clinicians to make our
patients well.
Sometimes, simple answers to complex problems can be the only answer. We
can’t change the behaviors and beliefs of others. Similarly, we can’t change
the financial reality of delivering care and the only thing under our
complete control is how we live with the reality of our professions. Living
in the problem, not the solution causes unnecessary emotional turmoil for
anyone. I read a lot of trade articles where authors are telling Materials
Directors and Managers how important our profession is and to "stand tall."
I agree whole heartedly, but it’s just part of the equation. I can’t demand
respect from anyone, but I can earn their respect by the quality of my
outcomes and the content of my character. I make the assumption when anyone
is hired; they are academically and technically qualified to fill their
roles. Intellect and technical skills are important, but we must really take
them for granted as only part of us doing an outstanding job in our
hospital.
To succeed as a hospital DMM, or MM, we must not only be technical
experts in our chosen profession, we need to embrace the culture and mission
of the hospital and healthcare itself. We need to model that we are here to
serve our clinical customers in the same way they serve our patients. We
need to be the Servant Leader of the Hospital, and model this
behavior to our staff and everyone we engage with on a day-to-day basis.
Understanding healthcare and how to balance cost control with excellent
patient care is our ultimate goal. In a past acute care position, I was the
only Materials Director to be president of our Hospital Coordinating Council
and I loved it! I worked with the Hospital Foundation and almost every
committee we had to contribute to the culture and success of my institution.
The Hospital COO called me the true "Servant Leader" of our hospital and it
was the best compliment I’ve ever received.
But what really means most to me, are the intangibles of working in a
hospital. Things like; walking patients to their appointment when they were
lost in the hallway, genuine appreciation from clinical managers when I fix
a problem, walking the floors and visiting the nursing stations, stopping in
L&D to look at the new babies through the window and seeing the people I
work with on committees running down the hall with a crash cart to save
someone’s life. When I have a tough day and am wondering how the whole deal
is ever going to work out, all I need to do is see a care giver use those
supplies we work so hard to purchase and distribute to make someone well. At
the end of the day, I have true respect for the healing and compassion care
givers deliver to our patients day-in and day-out.
One specific attitude changing event is forever etched in my mind and
memory. The Nurse Manager from our Oncology Unit came down to my office with
a supply issue she was beside herself about. It was a normal crisis for
Materials Management. There was a distributor back-order issue and the
suitable sub was out of stock as well. I listened as she vented and instead
of her waiting around for an answer, I told her I would handle it
immediately and come see her myself with an answer. When I got to the
Oncology floor, I started the walk to the other side of the unit to see the
manager. A few doors down the hall, I couldn’t help but hear a very soothing
and kind voice comforting someone. The very same Nurse Manager, who had
"yelled" at me an hour earlier, was sitting on the edge of a terminal
patient’s bed as she cried and whimpered in pain. She was stroking the hair
over this woman’s ear, just like my mother did to me when I was a little boy
and not feeling well. Her voice sounded like an angel, and she was telling
her it would be ok and that she was there for her. Life and the profession
I’ve chosen were put into perspective for me in that instant. She was in my
office in advocacy for her patients and staff, not for anything selfish or
self-seeking for herself. I decided then-and-there I was going to do the
same thing for my clinical customers, as the Oncology Manager did for her
patient. Being of service to others gets one "out of themselves" and leads
to humility, peace and a sense of overall well being. I am not a care giver,
but doing a great job supporting my patient care customers makes me feel
like I am making a positive contribution to society.
The reason I wrote this article is because I lost site of The Servant
Leader concept for awhile during some organizational financial turmoil in a
past hospital position. I got so tired, that I returned a recruiter’s call
and I left a position I loved to work outside of healthcare. I thought
industry would be less stressful, more efficient and life would be easier.
Well, I’m here to tell you, the problems were no different, but there were
no babies to look at on the L&D floor when I had a bad day and no patients
to escort to their appointments when I saw them lost in my hospital. There
was a professional void for me that extended into my personal life as well
and I didn’t even know it. Recently, I returned to a DMM role in a
metropolitan hospital and it feels like coming home from a long, scary trip
down the Amazon River in a plastic canoe. The problems are still here, but
I’d rather solve them with the good people in healthcare, than be back on
the industrial street doing something that has no meaning to me as a person.
In life itself, we can gain control by letting go. When we surrender to a
hopeless problem, we can find strength and power. Reach out and let your
clinical customers know you are there to serve them. Be a part of your
hospital and not the grouchy person in the basement who subconsciously
thinks we need to say "NO" all the time to cut costs. If you aren’t now,
become "The Servant Leader" of your hospital. The process
improvements, standardization and contract compliance is much easier to sell
when you work in a true partnership with your customers. It’s really hard to
push change, and outcomes are better when you pull change through with the
support of other people. Like my mentor Norm always said, "It’s pretty hard
to push a piece of rope." 
Marc G. Higgins is director of materials management, Valley Medical
Center, Renton, WA.
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