Lots of new responsibilities: Looking for advice
Submitted by pranishk on December 31, 2007 - 9:27am.
Hey all,
I just went from being a resident with 0 administrative responsibility (except for patients) to being in charge of the pharmacy department of a 220 bed hospital with about 40 or so people I’m responsible for.
Basically I’m freaking out. I need advice and I’ve just bought GTD and am looking for ways to keep up before I inevitably fall behind.
Any advice, suggestions, or anecdotes would be greatly appreciated.
[Ed’s note: I “bumped” this question because I missed it first time around, and I’d love to hear what sorts of advice people have. – Merlin]
- 8541 reads
Lots of New Responsibilities
1st - congratulations!!! this is a tremendous and meaningful opportunity. 2nd - read and reread GTD; it is right on the mark 3rd - keep focused on your projects and goals; hospitals are full of meetings and time-wasters designed to keep you distracted from the job at hand 4th - know your employees; know about them as people, their families, etc.; pharmacists are in short supply and good technicians are worth their weight in gold; always remember how much you need them in order to be successful 5th - know your boss; know his/her idiosyncracies and understand what makes them successful and how you fit into that 6th - work all shifts; as a non-pharmacist (i’m assuming), you need to know what happens in the department and how the different processes work; you need to have credibility 7th - develop alliances of peers who are savvy and can give you good intelligence about what’s going on and importantly things you could do better. 8th- learn all you can about process improvement; pharmacy has a process- production side and a clinical side. productivity is a key point of emphasis these days and the best way to enhance is process improvement. 9th -just in case you don’t know, nurses run the hospital – they are your key customer; they can make or break your success for programs you want to do. 10th - patient safety is paramount; push for technological improvements to help.
Good luck - I speak from 35 years experience in hospital administration. Craig