More than 40 attended the HASC Administrative Professionals Forum on Sept. 21. This annual educational event draws administrative professionals supporting C-suite executives from dozens of hospitals throughout Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

Jennifer Wortham, Dr.PH, president of Institute for Performance Excellence, presented an introduction to project and change management. Beginning with the basics, Wortham outlined the discipline of planning, organizing, securing and managing resources to achieve specific goals. Noting that defining the project is the most important step, she reviewed how to use a charter template, a Lean tool for clearly defining the project for the team.

Special guest speakers Janet Larsen Palmer, PhD, and Neal Larsen Palmer, PhD, from Communication Excellence Institute, presented How Taxing is Multitasking? Communication Strategies for Surviving in a High-Tech Workplace. Pointing to research indicating multitasking can decrease efficiency despite being an integral part of today’s workplace, the team shared practical methods of approaching tasks differently to improve efficiency and time management such as:

• Systemizing tasks so they can become background tasks
• Setting specific times for checking emails
• Flagging emails that require action beyond two minutes and immediately responding to emails taking less than two minutes

The interactive forum also featured a networking lunch along with key information on current HASC products and services. Next year’s forum is currently being planned.

Contact: Trudy Duncan
(213) 538-0718, tduncan@hasc.org