1. Decisions made daily. Ms. Lambie reviews the schedule will be for the next day, determining how many employees are needed and how many will have to be furloughed for the day.
2. First, call for volunteers. Ms. Lambie always looks for volunteers first. “We ask, ‘Who does not want to come in tomorrow?’ Quiet often, someone volunteers,” she says.
3. Then, assign furloughs. If there are not enough volunteers for all the furloughed positions, Ms. Lambie chooses people who have not been furloughed for the longest time.
4. Need to be equitable. All positions are treated the same when furloughs are assigned. For example, the center does not differentiate between an OR tech and a nurse, whose time off would save the ASC more money because she is paid more. “If you treated people differently it would harm morale,” Ms. Lambie says. “Everybody gets a turn.”
5. Sometimes everyone is furloughed. In rare cases, the whole ASC is closed. Ms. Lambie scans the schedule a week in advance to time make sure the ASC has a sufficient number of cases each day. Reviewing the schedule a week before this Thanksgiving, for example, she saw only two cases scheduled on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. Unable to find more cases for that day, she asked the surgeon with these cases to move them to another day and announced the facility would be closed for that day.
Learn more about the SurgiCenter of Baltimore.
Read more best practices for ASC operations:
– 5 Proven Ways to Increase ASC Case Volume
– 13 Things to Know About ASC Operations
