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COPYRIGHT 2001 Healthcare Purchasing News
Potential pitfalls plentiful when trying to determine ideal material management staffing levels
Benchmarking studies to determine the leanest yet most efficient hospital staffing levels have become common fat-cutters since the Balance Budget Act of 1997 began forcing healthcare providers to restructure their economics.
However, while citing the necessity of benchmarks, some material managers were just as willing to address the downside of trimming personnel, advising their colleagues at other hospitals to anticipate a major values struggle.
Downsizing should never be taken lightly or enacted in an unbridled, compulsive way. A hospital's morale is at stake, as well as peoples' livelihoods. Cutting back too many workers can result in a burst of turnover due to burnout.
Ultimately, customer satisfaction starts to fall if downsizing is done inappropriately, one material manager noted.
On the administrative side, some executives receive incentives for reducing staff per department while also increasing productivity. It's then that staff benchmarking can...
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