The world is short staffed. Be nice to those who showed up!
We have all heard that saying or seen that sign displayed in a sparsely staffed establishment. Droves of people of working age are hanging their hats or switching careers due to feeling burned out, underappreciated, and overworked. There is also the highly skilled and experienced population that is retiring and taking their learned knowledge with them! Throw in the cost of higher education and a lack of school programs, and voila, you have the vast majority of all working environments. Some occupations that have been hit the hardest? Education and healthcare. Today, we are going to focus on the unsung heroes of the Lab. Yep, those guys, the ones that process every specimen and tube and return highly accurate and timely results.
But what challenges are laboratories facing?
It’s times like these that laboratories wished they had more automated processes; but with fewer people on staff and budget constraints, there aren’t the resources for optimization. With large holes in their schedules, lab management utilizes most of their time dealing with the staffing crisis. This could entail bringing in traveling medical technologists or devising ways to entice what is left of their exhausted staff into working more overtime. Everyone is in survival mode, just trying to make it through one day at a time.
The hospital brings in traveling medical technologists to fill the gaps in the schedule. The traveling technologist notices all the inefficient workflows, they start to ask questions, suggest innovative ideas.
The lab manager, who sees the same problems, loves the traveler's enthusiasm but is so strapped for time and resources, how could they implement these changes while keeping up with the work?
Hmmmm…. Sound familiar?
The question remains, how can laboratories become more efficient, stay afloat with such a limited workforce, and invest in their own infrastructure?
Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a group of people, experienced people, that could help you? A delightful group that understands the limitations and workflow of a busy lab? An extra set of eyes to review the test menu to set up a batch testing schedule for the piddly tests to decrease quality control reagent usage? A gaggle of geeks that could set up autofiling in the background that would remove countless hours of manual tech work a day, thus allowing techs to order the supplies (that don’t exist)?
Thankfully, that dream can be made into a reality by enlisting the services of JTG Consulting. Our team of experts, all seasoned with actual lab experience, can help you. We understand the demands and challenges that healthcare in general is facing. We can help implement processes that can automate the basics, eliminate re-work, and decrease waste. Let us help you improve efficiencies, workflow, TATs, and make some overworked techs happy.
With the amount of time/money autofiling or other optimizations could save your lab, you might have leftover for a pizza party!
(Kidding, please don’t—lab is sick of pizza parties)
For more information on kaizen/ optimizing laboratory work flow, check out this link
from Ewing Cole, or this link from Lab Manager.