Many ASC employees are left overworked as staff shortages, exacerbated by COVID-19 spikes and vaccination mandates, plague the healthcare industry.
Trina Cole, administrator of St Luke’s Surgicenter-Lee's Summit (Mo.), is lessening these shortages through communication and respect. Her center's employee turnover is 2 percent or less consistently, according to the center's medical records specialist Jessica Solis.
"She is kind and still gets things done," Ms. Solis said.
Becker's ASC Review spoke with Ms. Cole about her strategy for avoiding employee turnover and her biggest accomplishments in the last year.
Question: What are you most proud of in the last year?
Trina Cole: 2021 has been a challenging year for all of us. I am very proud of our entire center, but what I am most proud of is how staff and leadership worked together to prevent internal COVID-19 transmission. We are a relatively busy center with more than 1,000 cases a month. We have not had a single internal COVID-19 exposure in our center. I know that is a strange thing to be proud of, but I feel the safety measures we have in place to protect our staff, physicians and patients are instrumental in other positives at our center.
Q: How do you keep employee turnover so low?
TC: Communication and respect. We give the staff the opportunity to provide input, which helps with process buy-in. In our current status of multiple changes, sometimes daily, we need everyone’s help. Staff know they are appreciated by me and the other leaders. We celebrate accomplishments and hard work.
Q: What is your favorite part about being an administrator?
TC: I love that I have the chance to direct the day-to-day operations as well as spend time with patients, staff and providers. I take pleasure in mentoring and watching people grow. I enjoy solving problems by thinking outside of the box.