1. Pay attention to compensation at local facilities. Alisa Fischer, administrator of St. Augustine (Fla.) Surgery Center, says as an ASC administrator, you can usually find out from your staff how your salaries compare to other facilities. You want to offer salaries that are competitive enough to attract employees, but not high enough that you spend more money than necessary on staffing. “Usually, the PRN staffers who are also PRN at other facilities will share that another facility is paying more money,” Ms. Fischer says. “Sometimes when applicants come to apply for positions, it’s evident when the position is offered that the amount is lower than the applicant is currently getting paid.” If your staff makes it clear that other facilities are paying higher salaries, you might look at your budget and determine whether you can afford to give raises.
Ms. Fischer adds that your ASC will probably hear if a local hospital gives raises or implements a change to benefits. “It’s usually a topic heard through the neighborhood grapevine,” she says. You can also look at national surveys of salaries by job position and state to determine compensation at facilities of a similar size and location.
2. Track progress so you can base raise decisions on merit. If you can afford to give raises on an annual basis, Tona Savoie, administrator of Bayou Region Surgical Center in Thibodaux, La., recommends basing your raises on each employee’s individual contribution. “I believe it is better to pay higher salaries and get people who are willing to truly contribute to the goals of the center and work as a team,” she says. “There are always people willing to work for less money, but be careful: Some positions are better filled with experienced people.” That said, you can determine how to raise salaries by sharing center-wide goals with each staff member and tracking individual progress on those goals. Hold quarterly meetings to discuss progress and ask how the staff member is contributing to the ASC’s financial and quality goals. Take good notes so you can refer to concrete examples if you are asked to justify a salary decision. If a nurse is frequently willing to cover last-minute shifts, make a note of his or her flexibility and refer to it when deciding a yearly raise.
3. If you can’t raise salaries, consider bonuses. With the pressure of declining reimbursements and lower patient volumes, your center may not be able to increase salaries every year. If you can’t raise salaries, you can still divide a percentage of the center’s profits among staff members to incentivize and reward their hard work. Tammy Burnett, administrator of The Plastic Surgical Center in Flowood, Miss., says she gives her staff members a bonus once a year based on center profitability. “I take anywhere from 3-5 percent of our net total profit and pay it directly back to the employees,” she says. “It’s divided equally, whether you’re an OR manager or front desk receptionist.” Unlike a raise based on individual merit, a bonus shared among every employee will encourage oversight between staff members. If a physician wants to use a supply that a nurse deems unnecessary, “the staff members will stand there and say, ‘We’re not opening that’,” Ms. Burnett says. “They know their compensation is dependent on how well we do overall financially, so they’re 100 percent invested in what we do.”
Learn more about St. Augustine (Fla.) Surgery Center, Bayou Region Surgical Center and The Plastic Surgical Center of Mississippi.
