Cleaning Up When Company Comes


 Cleaning Up When Company Comes

 Every time a survey window opens, suddenly hospitals remember what ‘right’ looks like. Equipment disappears, bad habits get hidden, and for a few days the collaboration is beautiful – leadership, infection prevention, quality, risk, everyone in the same halls, looking at the same documentation, acting like the basics actually matter. From where I sit in Sterile Processing, that’s the only time some leaders’ voices are heard. That’s when our concerns suddenly get a microphone, when trays, peel packs, and workflow become urgent. And staff feel that shift. Frontline techs pull me aside and say, ‘So now we want to do things right? Why don't we do this all the time?’ They’re frustrated because they’re being pushed to hide practices they were trained into, minimize the shortcuts they were told to take, and smile for the visitors. It starts to feel less like a hospital and more like that house where you’re told, ‘Don’t you dare tell anybody what goes on in here.’ During Joint Commission, leaders want staff to lie for them, hide for them, ride for them – all to protect an image. That is culture. It tells your people that the standard only matters when someone is watching, and that their daily reality is something to be covered up rather than fixed.

If that’s what it takes for your building to look ‘survey ready,’ that isn't culture. It's a mask you put on for Joint Commission, not the reality your people work in. And the 1,000 days when Joint Commission is not on your calendar.
Do what you know is right every day, not just when Joint Commission is on your calendar.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Admitting a mistake doesn't make you look incompetent.

Image
  Admitting a mistake doesn't make you look incompetent. Most people won't own a mistake because they're scared. Scared of looking incompetent. Scared of losing credibility. Scared of losing their job. That fear is real. So they stay silent. They redirect. They blame the team, the timeline, the resources. They build a story where it was never their fault. And they put energy into performing like they're fixing someone else's mistake instead of their own. But owning a mistake doesn't erode trust. It builds it. People would rather work with someone who says, “This was me,” than someone who never admits anything. The one who never admits anything isn't protecting their reputation. They're destroying it. Accountability isn't about blame. It's about saying, “This is mine,” when things go wrong, not just when they go right. Own it. Learn from it. Don't repeat it.
Read more

Speed isn't Efficient

Image
 Speed isn't Efficient Throughput is how fast work moves through your department, and a bottleneck is any point where that flow stalls. When people constantly work around a broken workflow, it looks like productivity, but it's actually a sign the system is failing the people doing the work. Departments track how much work goes out, but nobody asks whether the process is efficient or just fast.
Read more

Afraid someone will be threatened by what you bring, or that you're just too qualified for the role.

Image
 Afraid someone will be threatened by what you bring, or that you're just too qualified for the role. You thought about taking credentials off your resume to get yourself through the door. You worked hard for what you have, and it shows. Present yourself as you are and be proud of what you've accomplished. You're not overqualified, and if someone feels threatened by what you bring, they were never going to let you in anyway.  Shrinking yourself doesn't open doors; it just makes you easier to overlook. The person you want to work for sees your credentials and says, "I want this person on my team." What credentials have you been tempted to take off your resume?
Read more