March 23, 2022

It’s not exactly breaking news to report that hospitals across the American landscape are facing a shortage of clinical workers.  From the rocky coasts of Maine to the sun-drenched beaches of California, there is a staffing crisis that is continuing and, in some cases, intensifying.  Over the last few weeks, at least three hospitals have announced plans to scale back operations due to a lack of sufficient staff.  In the following section, we will take a closer look at these examples, as originally reported in Becker’s Hospital Review.  We will then explore possible solutions now being put forth by industry experts.

Rolling Back Services

South Lincoln Medical Center in Kemmerer, Wyoming indicated that it will halt the provision of labor and delivery (L&D) services beginning June 1.  In addition, the hospital’s operating room (OR) will no longer be open around the clock to support emergency surgeries.  The facility’s executives said these cutbacks in services were necessary due to their inability to recruit a sufficient number of surgical nurses needed to maintain a full surgical team.

Delaware County Memorial Hospital in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania has announced plans to suspend their outpatient services beginning April 5, as well as their intensive care and surgical services by the end of May.  Hospital officials said the interruption of these services would be necessary due to ongoing difficulties in maintaining adequate staff.

The Medical Center of Clifton Park, New York was forced to place a pause on overnight emergency care services on March 14.  The facility, part of the Ellis Medicine health system, attributed the decision to staffing shortages.  “The decision to temporarily pause overnight services stems from a lack of available emergent care staff as a result of the nationwide healthcare workforce shortage,” Ellis Medicine said in a March 7 release.

These are just three of the most recent examples of hospitals cutting services due to the staffing crisis currently under way in the United States.  We’ve looked at the reasons for the crisis in past articles; we’ve covered the lack of residency programs, the aging demographics, the COVID pandemic and its resultant burnout effect on clinicians as contributing factors.  The question is: are there any solutions out there that might actually keep services humming along while also maintaining the emotional equanimity of the hospital’s CFO?

A Search for Solutions

In a recent article found in the online magazine, Training, five recommendations for finding, keeping and managing healthcare workers were proposed.  Below, we will provide a condensed summary of these recommendations and provide some additional thoughts.

1. Hire from the National Healthcare Career Network

The American Hospital Association (AHA) has developed a career center website that gives hospitals access to a vast pool of potential employees.  This National Healthcare Career Network is a database that allows human resource departments to target those workers that have qualifications specific to the needs of their particular facilities.  Since turnover can cost a hospital up to $1 million per physician, making use of this network may enable hospitals and healthcare systems to greatly reduce their staffing budget by skipping past traditional costs associated with hiring, such as recruiters and staffing agencies.

2. Onboard more aspiring healthcare professionals

Getting more healthcare students on your team may help fill some of the gaps. These aspiring healthcare professionals are often more motivated and ready for real-world experience.  Having more students on board can help hospitals reduce the impact of workforce shortages and may encourage employees to give more effort in their daily routine, since they will know there are interns competing for permanent positions.  Students may also bring to your facility fresh ideas and thereby potentially help to increase efficiencies.

3. Plan for employee succession and career development

Today’s healthcare workers tend to be more mobile, moving from facility to facility.  To help keep your valued employees in place, hospitals need to actively plan for employee succession and career development.  One way of achieving this is by building smarter, data-driven professional pathways and adapting different learning styles to different audiences. By guiding these healthcare professionals toward the careers for which they are best suited, hospitals can increase employee retention.

4. Make technological competency a standard for all employees

Promoting the adoption of digital health would enable healthcare providers to deliver virtual online care, education, and advice.  In addition, hospitals should have the required IT infrastructure and training in place to cash in on the EHR Incentive Program.  With greater technology usage, there is more efficiency in staff utilization.

5. Improve your employee retention to reduce turnover

Employee retention starts with properly recognizing your employees and adding value to the employee experience.  Best practices to ramp up your employee retention include using connected apps for enhanced communication, an employee scheduling software for planning, and a reward-based system to gauge performance and rewards accordingly.  Properly implementing an employee retention model can increase productivity by 22 percent.

A Final Idea

Another idea hospitals may want to consider is using a robust case and patient volume management tool.  Two hospitals recently used such a tool to better manage case flow so that the hiring of new staff in the middle of the pandemic was obviated.  These types of tools are able to quickly determine where the need is, who is available to meet the need and then direct those resources accordingly.  Anything you can do to become more efficient in care delivery will help to alleviate the stress of being short-handed.  Again, hospitals will increasingly need to turn to technology to resolve this simmering issue.

If we can be of help to you in your search for better business solutions, please reach out to us at info@miramedgs.com.