Turnabout is fair play

Depending on your high school, the “Turnabout” dance typically occurred during the winter quarter (Homecoming reserved the fall quarter; Prom the spring quarter).

The conceit behind Turnabout was to flip the old-fashioned boy-asks-girl tradition with the empowered girl-asks-guy theme (even though the school and student council made it abundantly clear this was a “suggestion” and you could attend as singles, too).

Turnabout, so to speak, should break out in the business world — in this case, among healthcare providers to start.

In this edition, Healthcare Purchasing News reports on its annual SPD Compensation Survey; two months from now, HPN will feature its annual Supply Chain Management Compensation Survey.

What’s clear from the data we receive each year — and historically — is that SPD seems woefully undervalued for the services it provides to healthcare facilities and patients. That is, compared to, say, the C-suite and other administrators.

Let’s be frank and honest here: Anyone can make executive decisions, oversee credentials, financial ratings and licensing, schmooze with local, regional and state politicians and interact with payers, as well as collect dirty devices and instruments, and clean, disinfect and sterilize them.

But here’s the rub: Fail to meet established budgets and fiscal expectations or make a poor showing before donors and other public events and you likely will be replaced; fail to properly reprocess devices and instruments that leads to massive patient infections and potential fatalities and your facility likely is done (courtesy of publicity and resulting lawsuits).

Based on that logic alone, who do you really think is more important to the health and welfare of a healthcare facility that services patients?

In the past I’ve penned columns ranging from the diplomatic to the militant on how to recognize and value the SPD team in a facility. Next month, we feature the 2019 SPD Department of the Year, which we have done exclusively for more than a quarter century. It’s an honorable pursuit, for sure, but more is needed.

Turnabout.

How does it work? Like this: For just one week during the year — let’s make it National SPD Week, shall we? — healthcare facilities around the country flip the compensation of the SPD staff with those in the C-suite and salaried administrative and clinical department heads. Finance and HR can make the transaction easy by just issuing a simple, but legal transfer of funds — for the SPD staff, it shows up as a bonus for that week; for the C-suite and salaried clinical department heads, it shows up as a donation to that august group. Finance knows what everybody “earns” in the facility.

Before Turnabout for SPD, Human Resources issues a confidential memo to those execs affected, telling them how much of their compensation that week they must gladly and gratefully donate to the SPD staff. During Turnabout, the SPD staff receive a confidential memo expressing how much they’re appreciated with each person seeing a dollar sign followed by a minimum of three digits on the left side of a decimal point added to his or her paycheck for that week.

Healthcare facilities should consider doing it for Environmental Services, too, another department of professionals largely taken for granted.

One week a year a healthcare facility can recognize one of the most important departments of professionals that keep it running. The C-suite, administrative and clinical department heads should see this as fair play and a small price to pay.