Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.
Issue link: http://outpatientsurgery.uberflip.com/i/1324438
Facebook page constantly updated with the latest steps the facility has taken to ensure patient safety. Ms. Sabo serves as the center's infection preven- tionist, a role that has increased in importance and responsibility over the past year. She also devel- oped the center's pandemic emergency prepared- ness plan and has kept it updated as directives from federal and local authorities remain fluid. She spent countless hours applying for the facility's Paycheck Protection Program loan. She's responsible for assessing which new profitable procedures to add, and a private equity firm is interested in partnering with the facility, so she's also trying to orchestrate the sale. Her plate is overflowing. When the center's ownership didn't agree to Ms. Sabo's request for a raise, she decided to give herself something with perhaps more value: time. She takes Wednesdays off, but her cellphone buzzes constantly with updates and questions from her staff. Ms. Sabo plans to retire in June. "I've been doing this for 11 years, and it never gets easier," she says. "There's always something that needs to be done right away. When you're younger, that's exciting. When you're older, you long for a calmer routine." More than money Dan Stannard, RN, BSN, has led the bustling, multi- specialty Red Hills Surgical Center in Tallahassee, Fla., for two years. As the ASC's administrator, Mr. Stannard is grateful that every day is a new chal- lenge and that he constantly gets to meet new patients. Still, managing his 45-person staff and working with physician owners isn't always easy. Even though every minute is a whirlwind at work, Mr. Stannard is able to shut off at the end of the day and go home to his wife and two children. That perk, of course, comes with a caveat. "As the administrator, all things — clinical, financial and everything in between — fall on me, so everyone knows that I'm always a phone call away if needed," he says. Mr. Stannard was the director of nursing at Red Hills before he became administrator two years ago. So, while dealing with the pandemic for half of his tenure as administrator has been taxing, it's also allowed him to remain part of the operation's clini- cal team. "I've been doing a lot of the swabbing of patients to test them for COVID-19, and I performed pain injections before Christmas while subbing for nurses who were off for the holiday," he says. "I still truly enjoy interacting with patients." Pamela Borello, BS, RN, CNOR, CSSM, has been a traveling nurse for three months after calling it quits on a nearly 20-year career as a surgical leader at HOPDs. Ms. Borello believes her previous salary was less than what it should have been, but on par with peers across the country. She worked cases on a weekly basis to ensure her circulating and scrub skills stayed current, and enjoyed leading unengaged and difficult staff mem- bers — along with the challenge of getting them to focus more on their work and collaborating with their coworkers. She always tried to instill a posi- tive attitude and consistent work ethic in the OR, especially during trying times. That was more chal- lenging as staffs became generationally diverse, according to Ms. Borello. Now, she's enjoying newfound freedom as a traveling nurse, as she's able to pick and choose locales and contracts. This month, she begins a new assignment in the Virgin Islands for less pay than she could have gotten elsewhere. "I'm going there to enjoy the beauty, not to make the most amount of money possible," she says. "I also like that I'm not the leader in these positions, so I don't have to handle the administrative side of things. I'm able to just enjoy providing patient care and learning new things at new places, which I haven't done in a long time." For many of the surgical leaders who responded to the survey, patient care is payment enough. "The 2 2 • O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 1 READY FOR ANYTHING Every day is filled with unique challenges and "mini-crises" to manage, according to Linda Nelson, MSN, RN-BC. Cody Arnold