Staff Responsibilities: Discovering Your Employees’ Strengths

  Staff responsibilities can be a difficult subject to tackle in the wound care clinic environment. Paula Kreissler is the President and CEO of two wound care clinics and an expert on employee relations within the clinic.

  I am President and CEO of Wound Care Clinic - ESU, Inc in Savannah, GA. We have two offices in the Savannah area. We utilize Electrical Stimulation and Ultrasound along with a combination of cutting edge and standard therapies for wound healing. We opened our first location in April 2005 and the second location in July 2007. We are honored to have been the recipient of several business awards.

  Before opening my own business I worked for 25 years at FedEx, with 20 of those years being in operations management in New Orleans, Louisiana as well as the Tampa Bay area in Florida. I also hold a CPA License in the State of Louisiana. After I left FedEx and started looking for what I wanted to do next. I looked at many things, including wound care. I believe that anyone can do whatever one sets their mind to. From my perspective going from packages to wounds was not a serious roadblock to overcome.

  I believe the success of my business is a direct result of the following three factors:
    • The leadership training I received while at FedEx.
    • The efficacy of our therapies.
    • The compassionate and effective care provided by a very dedicated staff.

  For this brief introduction to the results of the Staff Responsibilities survey, I am going to focus on the last factor, “compassionate and effective care provided by a very dedicated staff.” How in the world can your wound care facility get there?
    • Hiring the right people.
    • Solid training.
    • Ongoing and effective two-way communication.

  I believe that many companies, not just companies in healthcare, believe that if they hire ‘experienced’ staff they will achieve good results. This is not always the case.

  Finding the right people is always a critical success factor for any business. The way to do that is to utilize behavioral interviewing. I learned about behavioral interviewing at FedEx. It was a required, week long course for all management. The short story here is that you go into the interview knowing the prospective employee has the basic skill set required. The amount of experience they have is not relevant. What is totally relevant is how that person is going to interact with patients, the patient’s family, co-workers (subordinates, peers, and superiors) and anyone else they may come in contact with while performing their job responsibilities. Also you need to find out how the candidate solves problems. There are many books and classes available to learn how to conduct and utilize the results of a behavioral interview. There are also many businesses that have screening tools available to assist in this area as well. For my operation, one of the attributes I look for in an employee is that they are an independent thinker … I know they will speak up if something needs improving!

  So once you have chosen the right person for the position … do you just turn them loose on the job? I believe the answer is here is a strong resounding, no! New hires always receive certain things depending on the size of the facility. Some of those will include an employee handbook, ID badge, etc. No matter how small the facility, a new employee should have two things:
    1) A copy of their job description and
    2) A copy of the performance review that will be utilized at some point in the future.

  Their immediate supervisor should review both of these items with the new hire before they start their training. Not as critical, but very helpful would be to provide the new hire with the job description/job responsibility list of their co-workers too.

  Added Bonus: This will help prevent arguments over job responsibilities down the road.

Effective Communication

  At this point hopefully the leadership team has been hired and trained utilizing the same methods as noted above. If not, then there could be trouble in paradise. Based on my short time in the medical field I have heard about and encountered some of those ‘dictator’ office managers. Of course the medical field does not have the corner on the market. The leader has to be able to lead the team in effective two way communication. This means more listening than talking. Having daily short (5 minute) team meetings as well as scheduled weekly/monthly meetings with everyone on the team in attendance.

  In order to ensure that everyone on the team works together to achieve/exceed the expectations, the idea is to get the team working together to make decisions. Of course this is an ongoing conversation with all staff. The leader/manager facilitating the group meeting needs to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to talk and that one or two employees do not dominate the conversation or talk ‘over’ others trying to speak up. Some meetings are important for a manager to disseminate critical information. For example; to implement a new policy or procedure, let the team decide. My rule of thumb is as long as it is “safe, legal, and within budget constraints” I support it 100%. If the team knows these are the parameters going in then they will find a way to make it happen.

  As an example of an outcome from a series of three meetings, the staff developed the following:

Wound Care Clinic – ESU Core Values:

    • We respect everyone every second of every day.
    • We always put the patient first.
    • We profitably heal every patient.
    • We keep a smile on our face and laughter in our heart.
    • We add value to our lives and others lives by always acting and speaking with kindness.

  As a leader, I require a solid staff to fulfill my vision for the future. My teams are always evolving and it is critical to surround myself with the people and resources I need to be successful. I understand that no matter how great the vision, I cannot do this work alone. I believe that as long as I have a great team my vision can be executed and we will be successful.

Paula Kreissler is President and CEO of Wound Care Clinic - ESU, Inc. The clinic heals chronic and acute non-healing wounds utilizing Electrical Stimulation and Ultrasound along with other innovative and standard therapies for wound healing. The clinic opened in April 2005.

Paula graduated from Concordia University in 1974. She worked at FedEx for 25 years, working most of those years in operations management in New Orleans, Louisiana as well as the Tampa Bay area in Florida. Paula holds a CPA license in the State of Louisiana. Currently, Paula is the Chair of the Community Leadership Board of the Savannah Chapter of the American Diabetes Association and is the President of Buy Local Savannah. Her business was awarded the Savannah Small Business Chamber’s 2007, New and Emerging Small Business of the Year. In July 2007, Wound Care Clinic - ESU, Inc. opened its second location in Pooler, GA. in 2008, Paula received the Entrepreneur of the Year Award by AWWIN and the Small Business of the Year Award by the Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce. The success of her business is a result of the compassionate and effective care provided by a very dedicated staff. Paula can be reached via email at paula@woundcareclinic.net.