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. Therefore, it is critical that healthcare leaders appropriately manage the employees that they do have, ensuring that staffing levels are in line with patient/volume demands so that no one feels undervalued or overworked. Gone are the days of “throwing bodies” at a problem because hiring more people is no longer sustainable!
More efficient operations not only improve clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction, but they also have a huge impact on employee retention. One way to streamline processes and alleviate the stress of the more “mundane” administrative tasks is to introduce new technology and automate functions wherever possible. Employees often feel defeated when their days are spent deep in the seemingly-endless “paperwork” surrounding a patient visit or episode of care. Staff wants to spend their time on the work that matters most, not just on obtaining the growing number of prior authorizations required for routine procedures/treatments, eligibility verification, checking on the status of a claim, and on other administrative functions that never seem to wane.
Today, nearly three-quarters of healthcare leaders are feeling some degree of burnout from the ever-growing backlog of administrative work and its downstream effects (2). Unfortunately, hiring a dedicated team assigned to particular tasks or processes is not a viable option. Investing in existing staff and providing them with the systems, tools, and education needed to offset the strain of growing responsibilities is much more cost and time-effective than trying to rebuild your workforce.
ALTIUS provides its clients with the direction and strategies needed to achieve elevated performance. If you would like to assess your current operations and identify areas where immediate improvement opportunities exist, please reach out to ALTIUS today!