MT 105 Laboratory Management (Prelim) PDF

MT 105 LABORATORY MANAGEMENT PRELIM COVERAGE Prepared by: Kaye Alexis G. Serrano, RMT The laboratory plays a central role in health care, it There are...

MT 105 LABORATORY MANAGEMENT PRELIM COVERAGE Prepared by: Kaye Alexis G. Serrano, RMT The laboratory plays a central role in health care, it There are four key styles of a leader that most leaders impacts up to 70% of medical decisions and the clinical adopt a combination of styles appropriate to different laboratory remains a vital tool in the practice of situations to achieve desired results: diagnostic medicine. 1. Supportive leader - provides high support but The purpose of the laboratory is to provide physicians, low direction in accomplishing duties, offers other health care professionals, and patients with the flexibility and encourages creative problem necessary information: solving. 2. Directive leader - presents rules, orders, or 1. To detect a disease or the predisposition to a other defined instructions, but limited support, disease offers concise and detailed instructions from the 2. To confirm or reject a diagnosis leader on how to complete a task by 3. To establish prognosis independently solving the problems and making 4. To guide patient management all the decisions. 5. To monitor the efficacy of therapy 3. Delegating leader - provides low support and Laboratory also plays an in important role in education, low direction, allowing competent (generally, research, information technology design and more experienced) staff to assume implementation, and quality improvement. accountability and responsibility to complete the goals. To achieve quality goals and ensure a well-functioning 4. Coaching leader - provides high support and laboratory requires skilled personnel who not only high direction by guiding individuals to make understand state-of-the-art technologies but also real-time decisions with appropriate support financial management, business, marketing tactics, and and corrective actions as needed human resource practices. MANAGEMENT SKILLS Committed leadership with skills to guide staff is crucial to a well-managed laboratory that generates accurate and timely laboratory results. An organization is only as good as its people, supervised by skilled managers but guided by visionary leaders. While leaders can be managers, not all managers are effective leaders. Leadership and management are often used interchangeably but represent different qualities. Good leaders use learned management skills, while great leaders employ both skills and their innate characteristics to effectively grow their organization. To be successful, managers must use a wide variety of Leadership - provides the direction of where a group (or skills. A skill is the ability to do something proficiently. an organization) is going, must be visionary, sets clear goals, and ensures right things are done. 1. Technical skills - Specialized areas of knowledge and expertise and the ability to apply that Management – provides the “road” to get there, is knowledge. Preparing a financial statement, more tactical in practice, implements objectives, control programming a computer, designing an office budgets, organize staff, and ensure things are done right building, and analyzing market research are all examples of technical skills. 2. Human relations skills - the interpersonal skills Traits of a Leader vs Manager: managers use to accomplish goals using human resources. This set of skills includes the ability to LEADER MANAGER understand human behavior, to communicate Administrator Implementer effectively with others, and to motivate Organizer and developer Maintains control individuals to accomplish their objectives. Risk taker Is a good soldier 3. Conceptual skills - include the ability to view Inspiration Watches bottom line the organization, understand how the various Thinks long term Thinks short term parts are interdependent, and assess how the Asks what and why Asks how and when organization relates to its external environment. Challenges status quo Accepts status quo Does the right thing Does things right Good conceptual skills are especially necessary for managers at the top of the management pyramid, where strategic planning takes place. Good managers use a variety of human, financial, 3. Quantitative Theory physical, and informational resources to meet an After WW II, corporations moved from “cost is organization’s strategic goals in the most efficient and no object” to a cost-containment, profit-driven effective manner. Managers can be stratified in three mindset levels: Early computer applications in this direction centered on helping managers find the best way 1. First-line managers – these are supervisors, to do things and save money. Linear team leaders, chief technologists. They are programming models and inventory more concerned about completing day-to-day’s management and control. work. 4. Operations Management and the integrated 2. Middle managers – operations managers, Theory (Modern Theory) division heads. They may straddle both Uses a set of tools, applied mathematics and technical and strategizing to some degree by human resource management for efficient engaging in a variety of activities. production and services. 3. Top managers – laboratory directors, board of directors, and various executives. These managers concentrate on strategizing and SIGNS OF POOR MANAGEMENT: planning for the next 1 to 5 years. They may or may not possess technical skills that a first-line 1. Self-centered leadership manager uses every day. 2. Resistance to change 3. Inability to self-lead 4. Poor communication 5. Inappropriate delegation 6. Ignoring feedback IMPACT OF POOR LEADERSHIP 1. Decreased Morale and Engagement 2. Decreased Productivity 3. Increased Turnover 4. Damage to Reputation 5. Financial Impact FUNCTIONS OF MANAGEMENT 1. Planning 2. Organizing MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS 3. Directing There four periods in the concepts of management: 4. Controlling 1. Classical Theory The earliest perspective on management and I. PLANNING management theory was described by a group It is the process of formulating objectives and called classical theorists. determining the steps which will be employed in It uses a centralized decision-making under a obtaining them. But the process by which high-level clear hierarchical structure and established the decisions are made is called: nature of bureaucracy. A management concept that focuses on optimizing efficiency and Strategic Planning productivity. - deciding on the objectives of the organization and the 2. Behavioral Theory need to modify existing objectives if appropriate There was an increase in productivity was a - allocating resources to attain these objectives result of the increased attention paid to both - establishing policies that govern the acquisition, use, sets of workers. and disposition of these resources In this theory, it concludes that social processes - it g is usually based on long-term projections and a play a major role in determining worker global view that can have an impact on all levels of a attitudes and behavior and it led to the laboratory’s operations development of the human relations Important questions that must be answer before any movement. planning: It says that, the manager’s concern for his workers will lead to increased worker’s 1. Readiness of the organization to engage in such satisfaction and improved performance. a process There was a good communication between 2. How committed the organization is to a time- management and the fulfillment of needs of and energy-consuming process workers. 3. Who should be involved in the planning group 4. How and when the process should be initiated Strategic planning vs Tactical planning 2. Enhances focus 3. Fosters teamwork Strategic Planning Tactical Planning 4. Improves risk management Long term projections Day-to-day operations 5. Enforces decision making Have an impact on all Works toward meeting 6. Inspires greater achievement levels the long-term strategic goals 7. Optimizes resource allocation Defines its mission, Implementing and 8. Stimulates creativity identifies directions, acquiring new 9. Reduces stress develops a unified technologies and state- 10. Amplifies success rate approach of-the-art automation. Qualities of a good planner 1. Detailed-oriented with organized characteristics Objectives of Planning 2. Empathetic and proactive to set an achievable course of action by establishing 3. Has positive attitude and works smoothly with long- and short-term goals others to monitoring progress 4. Possesses strong communication skills establishing an environment where day-to-day 5. Flexible in their planning approach activities are well controlled, measurable, and 6. Has the ability to focus and consistent thoroughly understood 7. Practical helps the organization develop an action-oriented Management by Objectives (MBO) approach and identify the pieces needed to build a successful operation Tried to integrate the concept of managing what can be measured while simultaneously bringing the At the beginning of the planning process a vision and individual into focus. mission statement should be written to articulate what Every employee has a set of objectives to achieve, the organization seeks to become. which together with all other employees in the Vision – It is intended to inspire those within the organization will pull the enterprise toward its organization to maximize their potential, and by so overall objectives. doing, to maximize the potential of the organization. It Key points here are that objectives must be clearly should state a common purpose, and it should express defined, plans for achieving the objective must be the long-term goal of the organization. detailed and clear, and there must be ongoing monitoring to see if the plans are moving forward. Mission – defining the organization’s purpose and answers certain fundamental questions about the organization, such as: What is our purpose? II. ORGANIZING AND STAFFING In what activities will we be engaged to accomplish that purpose? A key management goal is to ensure that quality What are our basic values and shared beliefs? laboratory services are provided. To accomplish this, every laboratory should strive to obtain modern Techniques are used in the strategic planning process: equipment, to hire well-trained staff, to ensure a well- Histograms/graphs/scattergrams designed and safe physical environment, and to create a Brainstorming good management team. Organizing is the process of structuring activities, Fishbone diagrams materials, and personnel for accomplishing Pareto, Delphi Analyses predetermined objectives. SWOT Analyses – strengths and weaknesses One of the most important functions of a manager is to (internal environmental factors), opportunities organize the activities of the laboratory. and threats (external environmental factors) Profitability, efficiency, and quality are often determined Signs of poor planning: by how well resources and workflows are organized. 1. Leadership vacuum – overall vision is unclear, Organizational Chart - shows hierarchical relationships executive sponsor is uninvolved or not identified between functional areas. It helps to clarify workflow, 2. Revisiting decisions - strategical decisions are reporting lines, and areas of responsibility by explicitly painfully rehashed as if they were not agreed to listing delineated work areas, be it by division, already laboratory, or medical specialty. 3. Missing accountability 4. Continuously adding tasks To be well organized is to develop a structured approach 5. Adding resources to time management. A time management system 6. Frequent and long meetings allows a manager to: 7. Missing dates Minimize time wasted on nonproductive issues 8. General confusion Be prepared for meetings Benefits of good planning Be aware of existing commitments 1. Increases proactivity  Understand the capacity to take on new and satisfied. Increasingly popular are alternatives to assignments and when to say “no” the traditional work schedule such as: Plan each day’s work efficiently and effectively 1. Flextime - adjustable schedule, allows Make certain that no project (large or small) is employees to decide what their work hours will neglected be. Failure to use a time management system ensures 2. Compressed Workweek - employees work the disorganization and lack of preparedness. Moreover, an traditional 40 hours, but fit those hours into a effective organization has policies and procedures. shorter workweek. Most common is the 4-40 schedule, where employees work four 10-hour Policies - express behavioral expectations within the days a week. workplace. 3. Four-day workweek - employees work only four Procedures - are formal steps to guide an employee days a week, the same as a compressed through a specific job task. It is a written, sequential workweek, but work 32 hours or less. course of action to be taken to achieve a desired 4. Telecommuting - a work-scheduling option that outcome. allows employees to work from home via a computer. Workflow - processes that are logically sequential, and 5. Job sharing - is a scheduling option that allows they are accomplished in such a way that one process or two individuals to split the tasks, step must be completed before the next can begin. responsibilities, and work hours of one 40-hour- There is an important tool for analyzing workflow, is the per-week job. flowchart. Flowchart – it is a fact-gathering technique used to make the effort of a task visible by writing down what is III. DIRECTING AND SUPERVISING done. It also graphically illustrates the relationships between necessary tasks. Managers direct people and activities. Staff members require and expect direction in their activities. Directing Managers can arrange the structural elements of the is the process of influencing people to attain firm to maximize the flow of information and the predetermined objectives. efficiency of work processes. They accomplish this by Leadership, the third key management function, is the doing the following: process of guiding and motivating others toward the 1. Division of labor - the process of dividing work achievement of organizational goals. into separate jobs and assigning tasks to workers. Communication – is among the most important 2. Departmentalization – the grouping of people, components of directing/management. Clear written tasks, and resources into organizational units. It and verbal communication influences action. facilitates the planning, leading, and control Without it, there is no effective way of articulating processes. expectations, expressing concerns, providing feedback, 3. Delegation – using the line-staff organization, it and ensuring that policies are implemented. has direct, clear lines of authority and It must be concise, clear, consistent, and continuous. communication flowing from the top managers Employees rely upon regular feedback from their downward. Employees in line positions are supervisors. Supervisors rely upon their employees to directly involved in the processes used to create inform them of their needs. goods and services, while staff positions provide the administrative and support services that line employees need to achieve the firm’s goals. Hiring Process Human resource planners must know what skills different jobs require. Information about a specific job typically begins with a job analysis. Also, a key HR responsibility is that jobs are examined to make any changes in job duty and task responsibilities. There are two documents help human resource planners find the right people for specific jobs: 1. Job description – the tasks and responsibilities of a job. 2. Job specification - list of the skills, knowledge, and abilities a person must have to fill a job. In every organization, there are four basic Work-scheduling communication flows through which messages can be As companies try to meet the needs of a diverse passed: workforce and retain quality employees while remaining 1. Downward communications – travel from the competitive and financially prosperous, managers are superior to the immediate subordinate. Used to challenged to find new ways to keep workers motivated  transmit information and instruct employees in Participative leaders – leaders who share decision- the performance of their jobs. making with group members and encourage discussion 2. Upward communication – travels from the of issues and alternatives. subordinate to the immediate supervisor, and it 1. Democratic – solicit input from all members of is used to provide feedback on how things are the group and then allow the group members to going. make the final decision through a voting 3. Lateral communication – occurs between process. people who are neither in the same department 2. Consensual – encourage discussion about issues nor on the same level of authority within the and then require that all parties involved agree organization. to the final decision. 4. Diagonal communication – used for cutting 3. Consultative - confer with subordinates before across organizational boundaries to save time. deciding but retain the final decision-making authority. The basic attributes of good-quality communication: Free-rein or Laissez-faire – managers who use this style Attention turn over all authority and control to subordinates. The thoughtful consideration of others. When Employees are assigned a task and then given free rein speaking to someone, be considerate of his or to figure out the best way to accomplish it. The manager her concerns, needs, and experiences. does not get involved unless asked. Under this It requires active listening to what people are approach, subordinates have unlimited freedom if they saying. Ask questions to clarify concerns. do not violate existing company policies. This is Active listening should always be incorporated commonly used in a laboratory. when communicating with staff members. Acceptance The act of favorably receiving someone’s IV. CONTROLLING thoughts and opinions. conveys that you understand the concerns being The fourth key function, is the process of determining expressed and that you will keep an open mind. that everything is going according to plan. It includes Empathy monitoring the implementation of a plan and correcting It is the ability to share in another’s emotions or deviations from that plan. feelings. Controlling can be visualized as a cyclical process made It is the identification of another’s thoughts and up of five stages: attitudes as they might apply to a situation. 1. Set performance standards and goals To truly connect with an employee, one must 2. Measure performance make every effort to understand his or her 3. Compare actual performance to established perspective in each situation. performance standards 4. Take corrective action To be effective leaders, managers must be able to 5. Use information gained from the process to set influence others’ behaviors. This ability to influence up future performance standards others to behave in a particular way is called power. Legitimate power, which is derived from an individual’s position in an organization Reward power, which is derived from an FOR GROUP ACTIVITIES: individual’s control over rewards Formulate your Vision and Mission as if you Coercive power, which is derived from an are going to put up your own Laboratory. individual’s ability to threaten negative outcomes Make you group’s organizational chart Expert power, which is derived from an consisting of the following positions: individual’s extensive knowledge in one or more areas Chief Medical Technologist Referent power, which is derived from an Section heads; Clinical Chemistry, individual’s personal charisma and the respect Clinical Microscopy, Hematology, and/or admiration the individual inspires Blood Bank, Histopathology, Phlebotomy, Immunology and Leadership Styles Serology Individuals in leadership positions tend to be relatively In PowerPoint presentation consistent in the way they attempt to influence the behavior of others, meaning that everyone tends to 1st slide – Vision react to people and situations in a particular way. 2nd slide- Mission Autocratic leaders – are directive leaders, allowing for Succeeding slide – Organization chart with very little input from subordinates. In this leadership pictures of members style, information typically flows in one direction, from manager to subordinate.