Preface

Although the healthcare industry is diverse, most of the companies in this field are labor-intensive operations. Their frontline employees perform many of the daily tasks that enable these organizations to satisfy their stakeholders’ needs while, at the same time, generating a profit. These staff members often labor in complex, fast-changing environments that require them to work with a variety of personnel types to meet key department- and institution-related objectives.

Given the importance of its frontline workforce, a healthcare organization needs to employ supervisors who excel in managing and motivating staff members, if the company wants to thrive. These administrators also must often be able to implement and sustain departmental-level continuous improvement (CI) initiatives while coordinating with individuals in other units on organizational-level CI projects. To achieve these goals, these leaders need to not only be proficient at directly managing their employees but also be able to foster vibrant office cultures that promote stakeholder-related ideals and are amenable to CI philosophies.

Too often, in my experience anyway, healthcare organizations do not provide their administrators with the training that these people require to best manage and motivate employees. These supervisors may also struggle to find literature on the leadership, culture-building, and CI-related subjects that are most suited to their needs. Office-level leaders at small or resource-challenged institutions will likely have an especially difficult time in locating these materials. I try to rectify that problem in this book by focusing on topics and offering advice that is relevant to frontline administrators. I also include some guidance that readers who work for small or resource-challenged healthcare companies will find particularly useful. I rely on my experiences working in the healthcare industry and my research to help me provide individuals with information and techniques that they can put into practice in their departments.

In the early part of the book, readers can gain insight into the healthcare administrator position and learn about best practices leadership methods. As part of this process, I delineate the roles that these supervisors perform in their organizations and examine why their companies often fail to provide these individuals with the training they require to properly manage and motivate their employees. I also discuss the typical office-level leader’s desires, obligations, and ethical makeup. I explain why it is important for readers to possess some knowledge of these topics. Finally, I posit best practices leadership ideas and strategies that I believe contemporary managers and professionals with de facto power should utilize.

Next, I delineate some of the important aspects of CI methodologies and explain how healthcare administrators might use CI techniques to help them reduce costs and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their particular organization’s (or department’s) processes, products, and services. I start by discussing key features that almost all CI systems share with each other. I then focus attention on two specific CI philosophies—Lean and Six Sigma.

I also look at ways in which healthcare leaders can develop organizational and departmental cultures that are amenable to CI methodologies. For instance, I provide some tips that executives and others might utilize to aid them in fostering corporate environments that are conducive to CI practices. I spend a significant amount of time positing strategies and techniques that administrators can employ to help them create and maintain CI-supportive office cultures. As part of this process, I identify employee-related mindsets and abilities that a super visor should covet if he or she wants to foster a CI-friendly workplace environment.

In addition, readers will learn about several other topics in this book. For instance, they will gain insight into how to create, implement, and monitor quality improvement (QI) initiatives. Readers will also learn how to make good ad hoc decisions, how to foster vibrant office cultures, and how to develop and enforce workplace-related rules and regulations.