Keavney & Streger

EMS Ambulance Healthcare Attorneys Law Firm

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EMS Dashboard Confessional, October 2018

October 2, 2018 by Matthew Streger

 

This month’s EMS Dashboard Confessional comes from an experienced executive working in a hospital-based agency. I am a big fan of getting stakeholder input before making critical decisions, but sometimes there is a downside:

“Some years back, we needed to replace our cardiac monitors and had secured capital to purchase about 50 of them – not a small purchase. Wanting to be inclusive, I stood up a committee to review products and asked the group of about 10 opinionated paramedics to make a recommendation.The group met multiple times and had spirited and thoughtful debate about what they thought would be the monitor best for our agency. After a time they made a unanimous recommendation that we should buy brand X. 

When I was ready to move forward with the purchase, I went to hospital management and ask them to place the order. To my dismay, I was told that our parent organization had an exclusive contract with the maker of brand Y, and I was not allowed to purchase outside that contract. With great regret I had to go back to the committee with my tail between my legs and explain that I never actually had the authority to authorize what I had asked the committee to do. It was painful, and it took me months (if not longer) to regain their trust. Moral of the story – understand your level of authority, and if you can’t accept someone’s opinion and/or recommendation, don’t ask for it.”

This is a great story that illustrates a common pitfall leaders can make! Ray Barishansky, a well-known thought leader in EMS, often speaks of critical pitfalls that can be fatal to the careers of organizational leaders. “One of the most common traps that we fall into is exceeding our level of authority. No matter what position you hold in an organization, you need to know the discretion that you have as well as your limits. Not knowing these can have significant repercussions up and down your chain of command if you try to go past that point, and actually succeeding in surpassing your authority could potentially be career-ending.”

Filed Under: EMS Dashboard Confessional

Interested in Submitting Your Own EMS Dashboard Confessional?

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