Working with other departments requires savvy

Credibility is the key to working with other professionals in a hospital environment, experts say. This is especially true for material managers, operating room managers, infection control practitioners and central service managers.

"When they trust you, it works," said Phil Frederickson, director of material management, University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center, Worcester. 'You have to act as if you are all planning to be in the organization for many, many years."

While no easy task, building trust is not rocket science, Frederickson said. "You have to show value, which usually means providing a better product, service or price. Sometimes it means doing little things, even just providing them with information."

Work the conference room

Of course, committee meetings are one of the main places where department members tend to mingle. One good opportunity for credibility building is the meeting of the standardization of equipment committee, said Mark J. Howard, CEO and president of Mountain View Hospital, Las Vegas.

"The key to standardization is to have a multi-specialty committee that includes physicians, nurses, material managers, financial people and others," Howard said. "This committee will decide which products they are going to use across the institution. Rather than having four or five products on inventory, they work together to try to narrow it down to two, possibly one."

Another strategy is attending clinical service meetings and nursing service meetings. Vivian C. Watson, director of perioperative services, Baptist Memorial Hospital, Oxford, MS, does this regularly and makes herself available for questions.

"The OR is a high-stress, isolated, critical care area," Watson said. "If you tend to stay isolated, then you can damage your relationships with other departments."

To ease her isolation, Watson also organizes in-services with members of other departments.

In addition, Watson promotes cooperation by presenting to new charge nurses a brief PowerPoint presentation that focuses on teamwork between departments.

Offering recognition

Another way to strengthen relationships with members of other departments is to recognize them for the good work they do.

For example, the material management department at Inova Health System, Falls Church, VA, hosts an annual dinner for its internal and external customers, or those whom they call partners. At these dinners, the material management staff publicly commends efforts by individuals and departments. Such efforts might include reducing inventory in the cardiac catheterization lab or other money-saving initiatives.

Other tips

* Compile a multidisciplinary product evaluation team to conduct value analyses. Let people know one or two days in advance what is on the agenda. E-mail the minutes to members of other departments.

* Secure invitations to the quarterly meetings for given specialties, such as surgery. Ask for some agenda time to talk directly to surgeons, and get their input on products.

* Hold process-improvement meetings with primary customers, such as surgery. Host 15-minute weekly meetings to stay in touch with surgery management on product and vendor changes, as well as recalls.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Nelson Publishing
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group