[BULK] RE: [Histonet] Wage and Productivity

[Tom McNemar]

Cheryl,
 
I don't really understand your response but I totally agree more with what it says.  My point in my email was much the same as yours.... It is much more important to develope your own benchmark than to use some national number.  It has to be relevant to your situation.  I don't use it to push anybody and I don't use it to make comparisons.
 
I did it for workload management.  Our workload continues to rise every year and with a big new surgery suite set to open next year, I expect it to go higher.  For me, the number is a managemnet, justification, and bargaining tool.
 
Tom McNemar, HT(ASCP) 
Histology Co-ordinator 
Licking Memorial Health Systems 
(740) 348-4163 
(740) 348-4166 
tmcnemar <@t> lmhealth.org 
www.LMHealth.org 

-----Original Message-----
From: Cheryl [mailto:tkngflght <@t> yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, December 29, 2006 10:18 AM
To: Tom McNemar
Cc: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: [BULK] RE: [Histonet] Wage and Productivity
Importance: Low


Hi Tom-
 
We staff traveling histologist (up to 50 on the road at a time) and I travel as a temp.  What the others say about taking samples and averaging the times of your techs is germaine.  I travel to different labs (over 40 labs in 25 years and counting) and I can cut anywhere between 25 and 75 blocks per hour depending on processing, tissue, protocols, instrumentation and automation.  
 
The goal on collecting these averages be an acceptable range of time to accommodate all tissue types/cutting protocols and tech skills.  The idea behind averaging is to get a benchmark (metric) on how to manage workloads, not to push techs to cut more and faster.  That's when you start to get mistakes and repetitive motion injuries....not to mention unhappy campers who will start to look for new employment. 
 
If you have a chance to go to other labs, often you can learn little tricks to pick up efficiency without compromising the quality or pushing past your tech's abilities. Each lab is different--not everything works in every lab.  It can be fun to try each different idea to see what does work for your lab.
 
Hope this helps!
 
Cheryl   


Cheryl Kerry, HT(ASCP) 
Full Staff Inc. 
Staffing the AP Lab by helping one Tech at a time. 
281.883.7704 c 
281.852.9457 o 
admin <@t> fullstaff.org 

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