To ask how you pitch ideas at work?

[everysinglenight]

I’ve never really been in this situation before.

I work in healthcare, building elective lists for surgery. We have a lot of smaller cases that are quite hard to get into theatre because the bigger cases are usually more clinically urgent.

My thinking is, once a month towards the end of the month we do a “high volume, low complexity” list, where we put ten or so of these cases together and the list just runs all day doing that.

I don’t know the complexities, so I don’t really want to suggest it to surgeons before it can be properly considered. But I don’t know how It would work!

How long have you worked there?

Over a year now

Ok on that case, during a chat with someone far more experienced, I would ask whether it has ever been the case that….. and then make the suggestion.

Casually. They may well be able to explain very clearly why it wouldn’t work or it hasn’t worked or indeed they may say “genius!”

You have to factor in the anaesthetic times - it may be a low complexity surgery but you still need to ensure adequate anaesthesia.

what’s your background? If you are non-clinical, I would consider discussing the practicalities with a clinician first?

It would work. Other specialities do them. Ours don’t at the moment as they always have bigger cases. My idea is to essentially protect one list a month (we usually have 6-7 weekly, so it wouldn’t be a huge loss of operating time) in order to get these smaller cases through. It would also open up time in other theatres for bigger cases.

Absolutely do not “pitch” this.

Just over the coffee machine run it by one of your colleagues that have been there much longer than just a year

And this is your inexperience talking right there.

You categorically do not know that “it would work”

These things get considered before surgery and op times adjusted to reflect it

well, I do, because they have happened before (weekend lists, no longer a thing due to a private company coming in and paying more for the theatres), but not for a few years now.

Oh dear. if you take away one thing from the thread i hope it is not to “pitch” this but rather have a chat with a colleague more experienced
Good luck

Can I ask why you’re so dead set that it would be a bad idea to suggest?

Well yes, there’s always a ball park time for a procedure but with higher patient turnover, there may need to be more nursing staff, more ODP time, who is staffing recovery and how long do these patients need in recovery typically.

if other specialities are doing it and it’s been done before, then your pitch isn’t particularly groundbreaking but you could try and work out why it hasn’t been considered or rolled out yet?

I think you should chat first with a colleague much more experienced than you.

To be quite frank, it’s because the surgeons find it boring. But they have also conceded (thanks to me telling them the actual figures) that unless there is a huge clinical urgency (I.e., cancer or emergent patients), they have to cede control over their lists for a while. As long as we follow their criteria (e.g. BMI, certain procedures), they will turn up and do what they’re told

That’s not an answer to the question I asked.

I work in the NHS and this is the kind of thing that is possibly able to be considered under your cost saving programme work stream or under your elective waiting list work stream. Find out who is leading those for your area and have an informal chat.

People here are being unnecessarily harsh. It sounds sensible and pragmatic, but there will be lots of things you maybe haven't thought about which is why we have these multidisciplinary work stream groups to review them. Good ideas are vital, we cannot and should not continue to do things the way we've always done them "just because"

Is this your first proper job?

I might reach out. The lead consultant for the speciality is always very receptive.

Jesus. Nice little dig. No, I had a much harder and much more demanding job before this!

Because you are 100% sure your idea would work
That just smacks of over confidence to me. From someone working there a year

I think the fact it has done in the past and does for other specialties is a decent indicator! I’m guessing you’re someone who has been working in the NHS for years and is resistant to change because it might mean doing a bit more?

Oh OP. Good luck.

Say to your manager ‘I have an idea to improve our list process, I wondered if you had ten minutes to discuss it as I think it could really help’ , then when you have the ten minutes open it with, ‘I’m not sure if it has been considered before, but as a fresh pair of eyes over the last year I’ve seen we struggle with xxxxx and I had an idea to improve it’ then explain your idea and see what they say.
the thing is often things have been considered and dismissed for very particular reasons, but it’s worth discussing it. This is a process improvement and is worth raising but it doesn’t need a formal pitch at this stage. If they do like your idea then say you could investigate it further if given the task, or maybe they will take it and develop it with the surgeons ,

That’s a yes then 😂

Let us know how it goes….