Hospital Budget Cuts

I was Dr. Baxter on a panel of leaders who had to decide how to cut 3.5 million dollars out of the hospital budget in ordert to pay for a new heart surgeon to come join our staff - in which the joining process would turn our hospital into a prestigious benchmark worthy of national recognition. I was the head of the Medical Staff and Supplies. Laura was head of the Housekeeping Staff. Nicola and Amy were in charge of the Nursing Staff. Dawn was our "Financial Consultant".

I was nervous going into this observation, because we were all going into it with the mindset that our department should give up the least ... and my department had the most feasable options! How was I going to convince Nurses to take paycuts and the hospital to fire housekeeping, when all we had to do was come up with a better system for preventing supply loss?? To me, I came in as "the bad guy" again just based on that. But, then it worked as I began to think of argument after argument to present. I knew that as long I was assertive and produced arguments that could at least pass in logic or theory, then I had a chance. Plus, I was just supposed to be a bitter managerial type (due to the fact that I was not "in charge" of the new doctor) who also had a tinge of sympathy for the Nurses and Housekeeping and what they were going through. So, all I could rely on was presenting workable theories that benifited myself. I went into the negotiation (according to my instructions) trying to not have my department touched at all by cuts, but at worst, accepting the "low" cuts while others could pick up the rest of the cuts.

Then, the solution came (or so I thought) about 10 minutes in. Dawn labled off her 3 top prospects of solutions for the problem. I'm not sure if she was supposed to, because that gave me ALOT of leverage. Luckily, the one that hurt me was 3rd in priority. The other two worked perfect (as I was thinking selfishly). At that point, while still being diplomatic, I made a point to let the group know that they better go along with my kindness ... because I had the TRUMP card. All I had to do was break the concensus, and things worked out for me. I offered to give a "low" cut to my budget, but could not get the other groups to do the same ... mainly because of a one sentence stipulation in the document.

We came to a stalemate, only to find out that Dawn was hiding the simple solution - which was a million dollar loan paired with my "low" cut and a nurses "low" cut. In reality, that option made alot of sence. But, since that knowledge was witheld, I still feel like I did pretty good in this negotiation ... even though I stumbled over my words a little bit at times while speaking. I should have asked Dawn alot more questions though so we could have come to a concensus.