Duo finds the fun in tedious tasks

“In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun…”

By all accounts, Janet Lytle and Elise Telford, two administrative assistants for PeaceHealth’s Ray Hickey Hospice House in Vancouver, Washington, took this powerful approach to tackling a mountain of back filing.

One of their colleagues, Kama Ferryman, shared the work and positive attitude of this special pair.

Parts of some medical documentation, such as consent forms or physician orders, are on paper. Lytle and Telford would scan the documents and match them up to records in the electronic health record system—in two places. As one might imagine, the work could be tedious and time-consuming, but rather important and worth doing well.

“To them, (the filing project) was a fun adventure. They provided updates to other staff members, keeping us posted on what letter they were up to,” said Ferryman. “Soon, we were all asking where they were.”

Ferryman said it took about four months to complete the project.

“We couldn’t be more proud,” she said. “Janet and Elise have a positive spirit, ownership over their work and make a great team!”

Now, here’s the inside scoop from Telford and Lytle:

Before she started with the hospice, Telford was a certified nurse assistant bath aide on a relief basis. When not busy with her core duties, she asked to help anywhere.

Of all the places in the office, she loved medical records the most, perhaps because of her work friendship with Lytle. After she moved into her current position in medical records, Telford would ask “why do we do it this way or that?” only to hear “that’s the way we’ve always done it.” After a while, she said, “We are banning that statement. There are always different ways of tackling a project. From now on, we will agree to any project—big or small—and just love our nurses and be happy.”

Lytle agreed. It wasn’t long before they could see their progress, which they both chalked up to good communication and words of encouragement.

Good-natured challenges were also part of the deal. Lytle’s competitive spirit (cultivated by her life in youth sports) would kick in when Telford would say, “‘Oh, I got so much done.’ Janet would try to one up me,” said Telford. “I would laugh and then we’d create a new challenge. But really we set goals and worked together.”

They’d turn on Pandora® and pick a station to get their "filing fingers moving as we sang.” Yes, Telford said they would sing in the office. Their playlists spanned music from the oldies to the 80s. “We play it ALL,” she said.

Since they caught up on the months’ long filing project, the pair has jumped into two new projects—one is scanning 150 patient records into the EHR. Already, they have only 30 files left.

The other project is hunting through 220+ old file boxes to retrieve pediatric patient files. So far, they’ve cleared out 50 of the old boxes.

They say, “What’s next? We love it and love what we do. We’ll keep the tunes going until the next exciting project comes along.”

The two put their hearts into their work. And here’s the most telling quote of all:

“When I tell people I work for hospice, the reply is ‘oh, I’m sorry’ or ‘oh, that must be hard.’ Janet and I must be wired differently because I could say this for both of us—we believe in what we are doing and our purpose and that we have a purpose,” said Telford. “If I needed to, I would go on hospice. Yes, it’s end of life, but it’s quality end of life with dignity and we are so very glad we can be a part of that.”