In this special Speaker Series, Becker's Healthcare caught up with Terri Rinker, revenue cycle director at Community Hospital Anderson (Ind.).
Ms. Rinker will speak on a panel during the Becker's Hospital Review 4th Annual Health IT + Revenue Cycle Conference titled "Revenue Cycle Solutions and Trends," at 3:00 p.m. Friday, Sept. 21. Learn more about the event and register to attend in Chicago.
Question: Can you share your best advice for motivating your teams?
Terri Rinker: [There is three parts. First,] tell them why. We have all heard to share the "why." My advice is to go further and give them the "whys" in many different formats. My why as a director may be to avoid issues with a regulatory agency. That may not motivate a member of my team. Normally, there is a why behind the regulatory agency's requirement. I have found it helpful to share that as well. For employees who are motivated by caring for the patient, you need to tie the why to how the new requirement makes things safer, convenient or less costly for our patients. Other employees are motivated by improving the bottom line since there may be financial incentives linked to the bottom line. If nothing else, a good bottom line helps with everyone's job security. So to motivate the entire team, you have to share all the whys since each person may have a different why.
[Second,] use different methods to share the why. I have a large team with different levels of education, at different locations and working [three different] shifts. I find it helpful to communicate the same message in many different ways — email, newsletter, meetings or one on one. I also host open office hours. While my door is always open, during these hours the staff know I am not busy and am expecting them — even if it is just to stop by and say hi so I have a chance to talk about the whys to whatever concern they may have. I normally offer some type of treat to encourage people to come by. I also regularly set aside time to sit with different people in different areas so they can ask me questions about the direction we are headed and why certain changes are made. More importantly I can learn what they are hearing from our patients and what their concerns are. This information allows me to better explain the whys.
And finally, when it comes to whys, I work hard at not being afraid to say, "I don't know why we do that. Let me do some checking and get back with you. Maybe we don't need to do it anymore." If it turns out that we don't need to be doing something, I widely communicate and thank the person that asked the original question. I give that person all the credit and encourage others to ask me or their manager why they are doing something if they don't know why. We consider it a success when we stop doing unnecessary work because someone asked, "Why?"
Q: What is one thing you've learned about your patient population that's really surprised you?
TR: Our patient population trends older and poorer. When we implemented some new technology in our patient registration process, I was concerned that our older patients may struggle or be resistant to the new process. By promoting the technology as a way to keep them safer — which it was — they were not only willing to accept the technology but embraced it.
Q: What's the best thing you've read lately?
TR: The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy is 8 years old, but I am reading it for the first time. It has motivated me, given me new ideas to try and given me a new way to set and achieve goals.