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staffing challenges in the
Echo, EKG lab
Staffing
Joyce Ukleja
Cardiology Supervisor
Rush Oak Park Hospital &
Rush University Medical Center
The right mix
In the Echo-EKG lab, one of our biggest staffing challenges is trying to find the right mix and right number of staff
since volume varies based on hospital occupancy.
Staffing is also based on the cardiologists’ schedules. The
cardiologists do not stress on Fridays, except for emergencies, so Friday is usually our lightest day and the day we
give technicians off for working the weekend.
Wednesday is our busiest day, since one of the cardiologists
will do up to six stress tests in the morning and then his
partner will do stress tests that afternoon.
Statistics drive staffing
Recently, we feel we achieved a good mix by letting the
statistics drive staffing.
Click graphic to view online.
Over the past few months, our echo volumes have increased
significantly and our EKG/stress tests have decreased, so
we increased our echo tech FTEs to two and decreased our
EKG tech FTEs to two, eliminating a full time EKG position.
The right fit
Another big staffing challenge is finding the right fit—putting together a group of people that work well as a team.
Finding the right team is as important in a small cardiology
department like ours as it is in a professional sports team.
It’s so important for everyone to work as a team and for
everyone to feel the same way, or it doesn’t work.
I recently had a staff member that felt she worked harder
than any other technician. I told her that’s true—on any
given day you may work the hardest, but tomorrow it might
be me or another tech.
It is impossible to divide the work evenly every single day,
but it is important to realize that it all works out in the
end, and that is something some staff members just don’t
understand.
Hiring technicians
Another challenge is finding qualified technicians for open
positions. In addition to our two full time EKG techs and
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