Author: Jenny Korth

In my previous post I talked about the lack of preparation, in general, nurses receive when they are promoted to managerial positions. Even if they have completed a BSN and/or MSN program they still typically do not have the training to run their unit(s) like a business. To clarify, I use the word “business” not...

When a staff nurse becomes a manager or director it is the result of a combination of clinical excellence, education, and leadership qualities inherent or developed within the individual. He or she typically has a number of years experience on the unit and within the organization – they know the ins and outs and are...

The measurement of clinic productivity was once fairly straightforward. The patient visit was the universally accepted unit of workload measure. Dividing total staff hours by clinic visits yielded staff hours per visit. Hours per visit could then be compared to budget, historical actuals, or industry average hours per visit. Alternatively, one could divide patient visits…

Improving productivity depends on the convergence of both knowledge and incentives. We have to acquire the knowledge of what to do, but we also must have an incentive to act on that knowledge. One without the other will not produce the results we want. Knowledge means knowing what to do—choosing the best course of action,…