Category: Productivity

The Road to the “New Normal”

With the stay-at-home orders beginning to be lifted and life starting to normalize once again, there are many things healthcare leaders need to be cognizant of as the industry enters the recovery phase of this pandemic. Hospital and health system executives need to take stock of what has occurred, identify the impacts, both financially and operationally, and take the necessary steps NOW to prepare for what comes next. Here are a couple of key elements to consider: What waivers and operating flexibilities has your organization taken advantage of over recent months? Though it remains unclear if/when any of the regulatory changes made to create access and ease the delivery of care during this time will expire, plans must be developed to account for all scenarios.

Why use consultants?

As the saying goes, “asking for help doesn’t mean that you are weak, it means that you are wise.” Recognizing your organization’s strengths and knowing when an outside perspective is needed to drive greater levels of performance is the forward-thinking attitude that successful healthcare leaders embody. While sourcing the support of a consulting team isn’t always the most “popular” approach, it can be the most effective.

Avoiding Productivity Pitfalls

Managing labor has become a delicate balancing act between providing the right level of staff and keeping expenses down. Implementing a meaningful staffing model while maintaining the unique values, beliefs, and overall culture of the organization should be a hospital's primary focus to ensure sustainability. Productivity, however, is a concept that is not fully understood within the healthcare industry.

Hiring More is Becoming Unsustainable!

According to a recent article, the turnover rate in the healthcare industry has increased by 5%, across all job categories, over the last decade, with the average hospital turning over 85.2% of its workforce since 2013 (1). These stats are staggering, considering how time-consuming and costly recruitment efforts can be, especially given the ever-shrinking candidate pool that currently exists.

Keepin’ it Productive!

We are all familiar with the term “death by meeting.” It refers to the seemingly endless cycle of leaders having meetings to prepare for other meetings during which strategies are discussed that require more meetings to implement! It’s exhausting to say, let alone live. Instead of having a positive impact on operations, it has quite the opposite effect.

Happy New Year!

As the world prepares to bid 2019 farewell and embrace the next decade with the start of 2020, people everywhere are spending their time making New Year’s resolutions as they celebrate the holidays and wait for the ball to drop from Time’s Square. Sadly, as we all know too well, those self-promises and good intentions only tend to last weeks, days or even hours before they are abandoned or forgotten. The problem, or loophole that lets so many people off the proverbial hook, lies in how a resolution is actually defined.

Paralysis by Analysis

It’s a condition of information over-load fueled by the strong desire for more knowledge and more data, which is easily satisfied by the touch of a button or the swipe of a finger thanks to today’s technology. Healthcare leaders require greater amounts of evidence to drive their decision-making processes. While it is essential to thoroughly evaluate operations and draw informed conclusions, is this enhanced analytical mindset and strong reliance on data becoming more detrimental than beneficial? Here are three quick tips to make sure that you are not becoming afflicted: First, it is important to make sure you are mining the right data! With access to so much, it is easy to get bogged down and confused by all of the material available.

What Does it Mean to Manage Productivity?

What does it mean to manage productivity? In the third and final installment of our video series on productivity, ALTIUS CEO Stephanie Dorwart discusses the key steps to implementing a successful productivity system and establishing a culture of accountability within an organization. Benchmarking a facility and comparing its performance to that of like hospitals or health systems is the first phase. The next component is using the information gathered to identify opportunities for improvement and establish realistic goals for change.