Grappling with Hospital Challenges

Hospitals are still understaffed after the COVID-19 pandemic and are always looking for ways to streamline, optimize, and increase efficiencies.

Among the myriad of challenges healthcare providers face, one stands out as both crucial and often overlooked: the urgent need to hire and retain clinicians as well as prevent burnout among these invaluable resources. This issue, which underscores the pivotal role of healthcare workers, was a recurring theme during panel discussions at this year’s ViVE conference in Los Angeles. 

" 40-50% increase in healthcare consumption

with a 15-17% decrease in the workforce "

Unfortunately, it took the COVID-19 pandemic and a shortage of qualified talent to highlight that nurses need support. In today’s environment, nurses are leaving at an increasing rate due to burnout.  Additionally, recruiting nurses to fill these gaps is becoming increasingly difficult. There is also the issue of physician-aging, which is compounding the problem. In rural settings, attracting the needed talent has become even more challenging. In fact, a recent study highlighted that 80% of rural counties do not have one psychiatrist within their healthcare systems. One panel noted that in the next ten years, we would see a 40-50% increase in healthcare consumption and a 15-17% decrease in the workforce. Scary stats.

During one conference session titled Playbook for Nurse Retention, the Senior Vice President of Talent for UNC Health and the CEO of Laudio touched on their partnership to empower frontline workers to increase retention and recruitment performance. Within this partnership, UNC Health implemented an internal program called UNC Health for Me to ensure that frontline workers feel a sense of belonging and connection. This program focuses on 4 key areas:

• Creating a welcoming environment for all teammates
• Developing talent
• Ensuring the team is valued and recognized
• Caring for employees through workplace safety and wellness
  

Once this strategy was aligned internally, they started including enhanced program elements in coordination with Laudio through their AI platform, which prioritizes and automates the responsibilities of front-line workers. These enhanced programs aimed to streamline work, reduce administrative burden, and standardize and scale proven leader best practices to boost front-line team engagement and retention.

When implementing this enhanced program through the AI platform,  UNC Health initially focused on nurses and later expanded it across its network. The use of Laudio’s AI platform allowed leaders to connect with their teams, analyze data, and make decisions all within the same platform. While there was some initial resistance, once those who were skeptical started using it, the resistance diminished. The ability to monitor new hires resulted in a 70% decrease in first-year turnover. The provision of easy actions for managers and a baseline for what constitutes good performance with room for improvement proved highly effective. Leaders are now contributing new ideas for improvement.

The achievements of the UNC Health for Me program serve as a compelling testament to the potential for positive change. The program yielded a 20% boost in nurse retention, $5.4 million in annual savings from reduced turnover, and 94% of managers reporting increased capacity. This success story underscores the vital role of healthcare administrators as attentive listeners to the needs of their frontline workers and the profound impact that education, training, and support can have.

If your healthcare organization needs help with process improvement, resource planning, or new software implementation, please reach out to Enterey today to discover how we can support you. By leveraging Enterey's services in these areas, your organization can enhance operational efficiency, optimize resource utilization, and successfully implement new technologies to drive growth and innovation.

We invite you to contact us here to learn more about Enterey's consulting services.

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