• Adopting flex
hours. Nurses used to
work 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.,
regardless of the sur-
gery schedule, and
any time worked
beyond those hours
resulted in overtime
pay. The ASC has
since adopted flex
hours, where nurses
can expect to start the
workday within a
"floating" window of
time — say, between 7
a.m. and 8:30 a.m. —
to accommodate the schedule. The proposed schedule gets posted a
week in advance, and final start times for a certain day are distributed
to staff members via group text the night before.
Initially, some of the longer-tenured nurses disliked not having a set
schedule, so the surgery center had to contend with some turnover.
But Ms. Miller says the "flex and float" policy has since become indis-
pensable. Ms. Miller estimates the new policy saved the practice
"thousands and thousands of dollars" on staffing resources within the
first 18 months of implementation.
The change has spawned other benefits, including the opportunity
to cross-train pre- and post-op nurses, which, in turn, has created
more flexibility in scheduling. It also compelled nurses to become
more involved in other areas of the practice, such as infection control
and supply chain management.
6 2 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7
• STRONG STAFF A "flex and float" policy for staff nurses spawned a number of bene-
fits, including decreased staffing costs.
The
Surgery
Center