Who’s Managing Your CS Department?

Too often you will find someone who failed in their previous role and then given the task of managing CS.  The real question is, “Who Shouldn’t be Managing Your CS Department?” Unfortunately, in an environment when the answer seems straight forward, we let emotion dictate our actions to include the hiring of unqualified people into CS leadership positions.

To make things worse failed leaders want to rely on certification programs to solve their problems to make up for their lack of knowledge and experience.  They do not know a single aspect of the job nor will they take the time learn how to wash and disinfect instruments; which is the one critical process requiring the utmost attention in today’s hospital.  They know absolutely nothing related to daily or weekly maintenance required on the number of machines used in CS and will pass it off as Bio-meds problem when pushed into corner. 

If they find out there is a bonus incentive the game is over due to whatever short cuts they can take to pad there own pockets in the name of the budget and administrative approval.  More often then not they do not have any background with instrumentation, equipment, or supply management and hide from the budget; making cuts when they should be spending on additional instrument sets.

Now let’s add RN consultants who have never ran a well functioning CS just to make things a little more special.  They come into your hospital, charge huge fees for providing a service, get all your CS staff certified, and leave.  They promote the same old process with little if any lasting results because they do not address the need for strong leadership and more efficient methods of managing instruments. 

I have listened to a number of RN speakers at AORN and OR Manager, talk about shared governance and when an RN should stick to being an RN.  Times are changing and the stresses that RN’s face will only continue to increase as will the shortage of qualified care givers.  We can no longer move poor performers through the system creating damage wherever they go.  If they can’t cut it then they need to go where they will do the least damage, which may be out of healthcare altogether.     

We as an industry need to shed old management styles and embrace a service related approach to patient care.  We need to specialize in every aspect and have a full understanding of service to our customers, nurses and doctors.  We may need to bring in specialist from 5-star restraints, hotels, and yes maybe someone from Wal-Mart, that’s right Wal-Mart. 

Regardless of what you may think about my last suggestion, we have a lack of leadership in healthcare, no consistencies between hospitals, and have to stop promoting and demoting poor performers into CS and other related fields.  The next ten years are going to push us into a direction we may not want to go, socialized medicine…were almost there now.  Everyone thinks that technology will solve most of our problems even though we have an abundance of it now and can’t seem to find or keep quality people to operate it. 

In closing, staff turnover is directly related to poor leadership, so why put someone who failed at their previous role, who affected turnover there as well, into a so called lesser one with no understanding of it?

Think about it