FEATURE
Keeping Staff Safe, Motivated and Rewarded in the New Normal
Show appreciation, support work-life balance and work as a team BY ROBERT KURTZ
T
here is no hesitation in Cynthia Armistead's voice when speaking
about the challenges of confronting the COVID-19 pandemic. “I have worked in healthcare for about 40 years," she says. “I have never navigated some- thing as unusual and stressful.” In her role as administrator of Ten- nessee's Campbell Clinic Surgery Cen- ter, with locations in Germantown and Memphis, Armistead sees how the pandemic is affecting her roughly 100 employees. For most, the experience has proved difficult. “While we know much more about COVID-19 than we did in the early days of the crisis, there are still tremendous unknowns. Staff are not only working to adjust to the changes made here concerning safety and staffing levels but are also dealing
with challenges in their personal lives. It remains a very unsettling time.” At New England Surgery Center
in Beverly, Massachusetts, Adminis- trator Norma Bacon knows her staff are on edge. Most of the 18 employ- ees are on the younger side and many have children attending school virtu- ally or via a hybrid model. “The stress at home is often worse than coming to work," she says. “I think coming here sometimes provides relief.” Bacon, however, acknowledges
that working at the ASC is not entirely stress-free—a fact exemplified when New England Surgery Center expe- rienced its first staff member testing positive for COVID-19 in October 2019. "She is one of the most metic- ulous members of our team concern-
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ing cleaning and following safety protocols. It goes to show you that anyone can catch this virus.” The experiences of Armistead and Bacon are similar to those of many ASC employees, says Rita Hernan- dez Figi, chief operating officer for MedHQ in Westchester, Illinois. “We work with few ASCs whose employ- ees are not worried right now. One of the big concerns employees have is balancing health and safety with their family needs. There is no silver bullet that will appropriately address all or even most concerns.” With no definitive end to the pan- demic in sight, coupled with the overlapping flu season, Armistead prepared her ASCs for possibly many more difficult months. Yet she remained optimistic about her staff's ability to persevere in the face of continued adversity. “Will it be easy? Probably not. But, as a group, we made it through the first stage of this pandemic successfully. We will do whatever is necessary to continue providing care to our patients and our staff.”
Safety as the Priority Whatever upcoming challenges ASCs face, they must maintain their commit- ment to safety, says Tom Jacobs, chief operating officer for MedHQ. “Psy- chologist Abraham Maslow puts safety as one of the primary needs in his ‘hierarchy of needs.’ This means these needs must be adequately addressed before we can move on to fulfillment of higher-level needs, such as belong- ingness. In an ASC, belongingness is often demonstrated in a spirit of team- work. However, if our more primary safety need is not met adequately, we might experience difficulty attending to the needs of our team.” Beyond implementing and work- follow recom-
ing to ensure staff
mended safety measures, Armistead is paying close attention to the poten- tial for burnout. "We had unusually
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