When a hospital is deciding where to invest its capital dollars, every department competes for a slice of a finite pie. While ORs vie for new equipment, technology or renovations, the SPD needs a new sterilizer; radiology seeks a new C-arm, and other departments are looking for their own upgrades. Ultimately, the investments go to whomever at the table makes the most compelling case to the C-suite.
For too many perioperative nurse leaders, the answer is not them. Trained to provide superior patient care, many don’t possess the business acumen and lingo to articulate their needs in ways that resonate with finance, administration, and the C-suite. Many newly minted perioperative nurse leaders are starting from scratch when it comes to the business side of surgery.
Rebecca McKenzie, DNP, MBA, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, enterprise assistant vice president of perioperative and procedural services at UK HealthCare, knows this challenge intimately—and she’ll address it directly in her session at Periop Leader Week, Financial acumen for nurse leaders: Key strategies for creating a successful business case for OR capital projects, on Monday, Oct. 5, from 9:15 to 10:15 a.m.
Join us at Periop Leader Week to access this session and dozens of others designed to help you grow as a perioperative leader. Register today using code PLNVIP to save 15%!
Rebecca McKenzie, DNP, MBA, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, Enterprise Assistant Vice President of Perioperative and Procedural Services, UK HealthCare
Dr. McKenzie realized early in her perioperative leadership career that major decisions about her department were being made without her. That experience drove her to pursue an MBA to become a more effective voice at the table for positive change and investment in her department. The goal of her session is to give attendees the tools to earn and keep that seat at that influential table—by showing up prepared.
Dr. McKenzie’s session will walk attendees through the full arc of building a capital project business case, from the first spark of an idea to the moment it lands on a decision-maker’s desk. She’ll discuss the stakeholders that perioperative nurse leaders must engage and involve, the financial arguments they need to make, the market intelligence with which they must arm themselves, and the hurdles and barriers they should anticipate.
She wants to help perioperative nurse leaders walk into crucial conversations already knowing what she and others have learned the hard way.
For example, one of the most powerful arguments for a capital project business case, according to Dr. McKenzie, is an argument that leaders often overlook: the cost of inaction. She says perioperative leaders need to communicate why it’s important, the difference it will make—and what happens if you don’t do it. In an environment where so many are competing for the same limited pool of resources, leaders who can articulate consequence as clearly as they articulate benefit have a distinct advantage.
Dr. McKenzie says perioperative nurse leaders’ clinical expertise and perspective are strategic assets rather than liabilities in this area. Financial leaders can model the numbers, but can’t speak to what an investment would mean operationally, clinically, or from a patient safety standpoint. She says it’s vital for clinical-focused perioperative leaders to create a partnership among finance, business, and clinical leadership.
Dr. McKenzie will provide attending perioperative leaders a practical, structured, reusable template they can bring back to their organizations that covers every major element of a capital project business case. She adds that there will be ample opportunity for attendee engagement throughout her session that can connect her framework to specific challenges and projects they’re navigating in their own organizations.
For clinical leaders who feel sidelined when major capital decisions are being made, or those who want to be more effective when they have a seat at the table, Dr. McKenzie’s session will offer both the vocabulary and the strategy to make them more effective advocates for investment in perioperative services.
Join us at Periop Leader Week to access this session and dozens of others designed to help you grow as a perioperative leader. Register today using code PLNVIP to save 15%!
