Question

Billing Department Supervisor Gets a Handle on Open-Door Policy

When she took the position in charge of a hospital’s billing department, a supervisor we’ll call Jeannie wanted to promote upward communication from her employees. So Jeannie instituted a policy that her “door is always open.” Employees were invited to stop in her office to check with her whenever they ran into a problem, thought of a question, or simply wanted encouragement. To her surprise, Jeannie quickly discovered that at least for her, there is such a thing as too much communication. She would settle down to work on a report, and the interruptions would begin almost immediately. During one 20-minute period, four different people stopped in with questions. Her days began to feel chaotic, and Jeannie wanted to put some limits on her open- door policy. Jeannie decided to be strict about refusing to become engaged in conversations she considers “time wasters.” For example, when employees try to share their horror stories about how difficult a client or insurer is being, Jeannie says she doesn’t have time to hear it. In her opinion, swapping these stories does not serve a useful purpose. When Jeannie thought further about how to reduce the number of interruptions, she realized that some of her employees were using her knowledge as a substitute for thinking through problems themselves. She decided that she could help her staff develop if she made it harder for them to simply “delegate problems upward” to her. She set aside afternoon hours for employee questions and began to require that whenever employees come to her seeking help with a prob- lem, they must be prepared to suggest at least one possible solution. She developed a set of ques- tions to ask whenever an employee tells her about a problem: • Do you have examples of this issue— descriptions of when a similar situation arose and how it was handled then? • Do you have all of the information about the account in question? • In your notes about the question, have you included a summary of the issue? • Have you drafted at least one solution? Until the answer to all the questions is “yes,” Jeannie asks the employees not to come to her. She explained that she wanted them to prepare fully before they bring the problem to her. When employees are prepared and Jeannie helps them with problems, she makes sure to play a supporting role, rather than taking over a case. For example, if an employee has difficulty collecting an amount and has run through all the options identified, Jeannie might set up meetings with insurers and employees in other depart- ments. She shares these plans with the employees handling the accounts, and she keeps track of all the deadlines she has set for action. She regularly reviews these plans and uses them as a basis for keeping in touch with employees about their progress. With these limits in place, Jeannie finds that she has fewer interruptions, but she doesn’t want to lose touch with her employees. So, fol- lowing the example of doctors, who go on daily rounds to visit their hospitalized patients, Jeannie goes on rounds through the office to see her employees each day. During her rounds, Jeannie asks employees how they are, how their work is coming along, and whether they have all the resources they need. She also compliments employees who have excelled in some way, and she asks what she can do better as their supervi- sor. She keeps notes of employee requests, promises to do her best to help, and later reviews her notes to make sure she is following through on promises.

READ THE PROBLEM SOLVING CASE “Billing Department Supervisor Gets a Handle on Open-Door Policy” Questions - 1. What strategies for communicating effectively does Jeannie use? What other strategies would help her communicate more effectively? 2. Discuss whether you think Jeannie is communicating adequately in all directions and whether she is effectively using both formal and informal communication. How could she improve? 3. How could Jeannie apply modern technology to help her manage communication with employees?

Answer 1

1- Jeannie use effective communication strategies like focusing on the issue and not on the person, emphathizing the employee rather than detached from them, using 360⁰ communication initially and later modified it. Most of the strategy used by Jeanie is of verbal communication she should use some non-verbal communication techniques too. Apart from this Jeannie should use affirming action, little strict on the employee when someone comes with absurd problem.

2-Jeanie is using more of formal communication when everyone who communicate with Jeannie comes with problem that on formal tone.To make the communication process more effective Jeannie should use some informal communication like meeting employees outside the office, informal get togethers to know the state of mind and what going on the employees work life etc.

3-Jeannie can use social media and technology to communicate effectively. She can tell the employees to e-mail her their probelm and after receiving mail Jeannie can decide the seriousness of the matter and asked those employees to meet her. She can also create Whatsapp group to communicate with employees in real time basis.