Healthcare’s workforce crisis is a top concern for executives, and it’s not going away anytime soon. The Radio Advisory podcast team put together insights from five episodes that delve into the short- and long-term challenges the industry faces — and ways leaders can respond.
When it comes to addressing the workforce crisis, organizations need to address immediate needs while also seeing to the structural changes that will ensure workforce stability in the long term.
The Radio Advisory podcast team has extensively covered workforce issues since COVID-19 sent this longstanding crisis into overdrive. This year, the team featured five episodes detailing both short- and long-term workforce challenges. And (as always), we delved into how leaders like you should react.
In case you missed these podcasts, we’ve outlined key moments from each that highlight the challenges and opportunities leaders can take to help stabilize workforces of today and of the future.
Short-term strategies to stave off shortages
Today’s problem is that there’s not just a shortage of caregivers in general, there is a major shortage of experienced caregivers. The population is aging, and demand for healthcare services is growing. This situation is causing a persistent strain on healthcare resources that is impacting patient safety and adding pressure to find and fund clinical staff seemingly at any cost.
Radio Advisory 152: The global workforce crisis (and possible solutions)
The challenge
In this episode, host Rae Woods speaks with international health experts Paul Trigonoplos and Alex Polyak about how the healthcare workforce crisis isn’t just a domestic problem. It’s a global issue, with many countries facing the same severe short-term challenges we are seeing in the United States. These challenges include an aging population, an increase in chronic diseases, an ever-increasing demand for healthcare services, and an increasingly diverse population with complex health needs. Additionally, the rising cost of healthcare and the rapid pace of technological change are exacerbating the workforce crisis. The lack of available healthcare workers is leading to increasing workloads, burnout, and decreased quality of care.
The opportunity
No country has single-handedly figured out a solution to fix the mismatch between clinician supply and demand for care. But we can all look to each other to find creative solutions for universal problems. As Paul and Alex explain, other countries are grappling with workforce challenges by experimenting with new innovations like recruiting and retaining healthcare workers across borders, increasing the use of technology for critical areas like bedside nursing, and creating innovative models of care to improve efficiency.
The pep talk
No country as a whole has [workforce shortages] figured out. What we’re seeing internationally is pockets and specific organizations solving the problem in their own unique ways. And this is really coming up in partnerships. … [O]ne of the big goals we’re seeing global partnerships pursue is improving staffing issues.
Paul Trigonoplos
Advisory Board international care expert
Radio Advisory 155: Nursing homes are closing (and you should be paying attention)
The challenge
Skilled nursing facilities are the only industry in the healthcare continuum that hasn’t gotten back to prepandemic staffing levels. As a result, an unprecedented number of skilled nursing facilities have closed this year due to staffing shortages and financial distress. This isn’t just a nursing home problem. These closures could disrupt entire healthcare ecosystems and significantly impact patient throughput, putting more pressure on hospital and health system finances and workforces. And as Advisory Board nursing and post-acute expert
Monica Westhead notes, the misalignment of incentives between acute and post-acute providers creates a power struggle that results in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), patients, and clinicians losing.
The opportunity
The closure of skilled nursing facilities has had a significant impact on both providers and patients alike — but it doesn’t have to be this way.
Hospitals and healthcare systems need to change the way they think about and approach SNFs and what they bring to the system. Hospitals and health systems should consider ways to include SNFs in value-based payment incentives to better elevate them to an appropriate place of partnership in the delivery system.
SNFs need to think about how they’re handling recruitment and retention. They should highlight things like autonomy, professional development, and relationship building to showcase to prospective employees why post-acute is a rewarding and special place to work.
The pep talk
The rest of the industry needs to understand the value that skilled nursing facilities hold in the continuum. Hospitals and health systems need to understand how important [SNFs] are to a patient’s discharge trajectory and ultimately their recovery or their personal goals of care. Non-provider entities need to understand that these organizations want to be included in value-based payment initiatives, they want to be part of the broader healthcare ecosystem.
Monica Westhead
Advisory Board post-acute care expert
Long-term solutions to address the root causes of the workforce crisis
Addressing immediate problems can alleviate stress and add some stability, but the work can’t stop there. Leaders must implement long-term strategies to ensure the healthcare workforce is stable and able to meet the increasing demands of the industry. The following episodes detail some of the sweeping changes leaders must make to take work off clinicians’ plates, ensure technology is boosting efficiency, and make the work better for clinicians.
Radio Advisory 173: 4 ways to prevent a physician shortage [Bonus content]
The challenge
We’ve heard a lot of concern from leaders about a potential physician shortage. How concerned should we be?
And what interventions can help prevent shortages in the future? According to Advisory Board physician experts Sebastian Beckmann and Daniel Kuzmanovich, we shouldn’t be worried about a lack of physicians in primary care, but we should instead be concerned about their capacity.
The opportunity
If primary care organizations implement proven productivity improvements, they have the potential to not only avoid a physician shortage, but also improve the lives of providers. This includes utilizing advanced practice providers (APPs) and adopting interventions such as workflow optimization, care team redesign, telemedicine, and other capacity-enabling technologies. Rural markets should also consider ways to be more innovative with their use of APPs to better respond to any potential shortage. If these interventions are implemented, they can help alleviate the shortage while also improving provider practice.
The pep talk
We can avoid those shortages, even in the hardest hit areas, if we put in the hard strategic work. It isn’t just about hiring more physicians, more APPs — it’s also about using those providers in the right way.
Eliza Daily
Advisory Board director of physician and medical group research
Radio Advisory 162: Addressing the workforce crisis: Insights from University Hospitals’ leaders
The challenge
Recent data shows that turnover among novice nurses is up, and the time to fill vacant nursing positions has also increased substantially. And as University Hospitals’ Chief Quality & Clinical Transformation Officer Peter Pronovost and Chief Nursing Executive Michelle Hereford explained to our host Rae Woods, we’re already seeing negative consequences in patients’ quality of treatment and safety. These alarming trends indicate a need a redesign the work of the registered nurse in acute care.
The opportunity
Before introducing new technology or processes to try and solve a problem, engage your teams to learn what currently isn’t working. Peter and Michelle talked about a discussion they facilitated with nurse managers and frontline staff. Over the course of the discussion, the team was able to recognize and remove unnecessary belowlicense administrative burdens on the workforce. This conversation alone resulted in a 60% reduction of order
sets.
The pep talk
This is both a humbling and hopeful story. The humbling part is what we live every day with burnout and unsafe things. The hopeful part is [to] think about how much better we’re going to be if you can take even of that 60% out. I mean, that’s breathtaking, right? If you can free up that amount of time to do work and the nurses sense joy in this, my sense is if we do the technology pieces that we mentioned, it’s easily 50% of staff’s time that could be freed up to better care for people or get more balanced workloads.
Peter Pronovost
University Hospitals Chief Quality & Clinical Transformation Officer
Radio Advisory 179: Future-proofing healthcare requires a tech-enabled workforce
The challenge
Organizations are investing a lot of time and effort into things like recruitment and retention practices, hiring contract labor, or offering overtime pay to retain staff or fill workforce gaps. But as Advisory Board experts Allyson Paiewonksy and Jordan Peterson note in this conversation, all these things are short-term solutions that don’t address the drivers of burnout challenges (like administrative burden and repetitive, below-license tasks) which can be alleviated with the right technology. However, leaders are concerned with the investment this requires, or they are investing in the wrong technologies, making clinicians’ workflows even harder.
The opportunity
Getting buy-in for new technology can be hard when so much attention is paid to the up-front investment rather than the long-term return. However, today’s workforce problems are getting too expensive to not try something new. The first step in optimizing clinician workflow is talking to your clinicians to understand what they want and need from technology, like reduced administrative burden or extending clinician reach. Also, understand that technology isn’t a silver bullet that will solve all your workforce problems. Combining technology solutions with best practices in recruitment and retention will help your organization solve its unique workforce challenges.
The pep talk
Once you’ve asked your clinicians where they need help and you’ve implemented technology to help there, figure out what you’re going to do with the time that your clinicians now have back in their day, and make sure you’re not just doing more burdensome tasks that are going to lead to burnout and turnover. Be really intentional about how that time is spent once you’ve alleviated some of those pressures on your clinicians.
Allyson Paiewonsky
Advisory Board nursing expert.
| Listen to our podcast, Radio Advisory
Radio Advisory is your weekly download on how to untangle healthcare’s most pressing challenges, powered by 40 years of Advisory Board research. |
|
| Whether you’re concerned about workforce shortages, industry disruptors, or health equity strategy, we’re here to help. Host and seasoned researcher Rachel (Rae) Woods talks with industry experts to equip you with knowledge to confront today’s unanswered questions in healthcare. New episodes drop every Tuesday. |
RELATED RESOURCES
IS THIS CONTENT HELPFUL?
INTENDED AUDIENCE
Employers
Hospitals and health systems
Post-acute care providers
AFTER YOU READ THIS
You’ll learn strategies to help strengthen recruitment and retention.
You’ll gain perspective on global and domestic innovations that can improve efficiency.
You’ll learn how to develop a strategy that confronts the root causes of the workforce crisis.
AUTHORS
Healthcare’s workforce crisis is a top concern for executives, and it’s not going away anytime soon. The Radio Advisory podcast team put together insights from five episodes that delve into the short- and long-term challenges the industry faces — and ways leaders can respond.
When it comes to addressing the workforce crisis, organizations need to address immediate needs while also seeing to the structural changes that will ensure workforce stability in the long term.
The Radio Advisory podcast team has extensively covered workforce issues since COVID-19 sent this longstanding crisis into overdrive. This year, the team featured five episodes detailing both short- and long-term workforce challenges. And (as always), we delved into how leaders like you should react.
In case you missed these podcasts, we’ve outlined key moments from each that highlight the challenges and opportunities leaders can take to help stabilize workforces of today and of the future.
Short-term strategies to stave off shortages
Today’s problem is that there’s not just a shortage of caregivers in general, there is a major shortage of experienced caregivers. The population is aging, and demand for healthcare services is growing. This situation is causing a persistent strain on healthcare resources that is impacting patient safety and adding pressure to find and fund clinical staff seemingly at any cost.
Radio Advisory 152: The global workforce crisis (and possible solutions)
The challenge
In this episode, host Rae Woods speaks with international health experts Paul Trigonoplos and Alex Polyak about how the healthcare workforce crisis isn’t just a domestic problem. It’s a global issue, with many countries facing the same severe short-term challenges we are seeing in the United States. These challenges include an aging population, an increase in chronic diseases, an ever-increasing demand for healthcare services, and an increasingly diverse population with complex health needs. Additionally, the rising cost of healthcare and the rapid pace of technological change are exacerbating the workforce crisis. The lack of available healthcare workers is leading to increasing workloads, burnout, and decreased quality of care.
The opportunity
No country has single-handedly figured out a solution to fix the mismatch between clinician supply and demand for care. But we can all look to each other to find creative solutions for universal problems. As Paul and Alex explain, other countries are grappling with workforce challenges by experimenting with new innovations like recruiting and retaining healthcare workers across borders, increasing the use of technology for critical areas like bedside nursing, and creating innovative models of care to improve efficiency.
The pep talk
No country as a whole has [workforce shortages] figured out. What we’re seeing internationally is pockets and specific organizations solving the problem in their own unique ways. And this is really coming up in partnerships. … [O]ne of the big goals we’re seeing global partnerships pursue is improving staffing issues.
Paul Trigonoplos
Advisory Board international care expert
Radio Advisory 155: Nursing homes are closing (and you should be paying attention)
The challenge
Skilled nursing facilities are the only industry in the healthcare continuum that hasn’t gotten back to prepandemic staffing levels. As a result, an unprecedented number of skilled nursing facilities have closed this year due to staffing shortages and financial distress. This isn’t just a nursing home problem. These closures could disrupt entire healthcare ecosystems and significantly impact patient throughput, putting more pressure on hospital and health system finances and workforces. And as Advisory Board nursing and post-acute expert
Monica Westhead notes, the misalignment of incentives between acute and post-acute providers creates a power struggle that results in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), patients, and clinicians losing.
The opportunity
The closure of skilled nursing facilities has had a significant impact on both providers and patients alike — but it doesn’t have to be this way.
Hospitals and healthcare systems need to change the way they think about and approach SNFs and what they bring to the system. Hospitals and health systems should consider ways to include SNFs in value-based payment incentives to better elevate them to an appropriate place of partnership in the delivery system.
SNFs need to think about how they’re handling recruitment and retention. They should highlight things like autonomy, professional development, and relationship building to showcase to prospective employees why post-acute is a rewarding and special place to work.
The pep talk
The rest of the industry needs to understand the value that skilled nursing facilities hold in the continuum. Hospitals and health systems need to understand how important [SNFs] are to a patient’s discharge trajectory and ultimately their recovery or their personal goals of care. Non-provider entities need to understand that these organizations want to be included in value-based payment initiatives, they want to be part of the broader healthcare ecosystem.
Monica Westhead
Advisory Board post-acute care expert
Long-term solutions to address the root causes of the workforce crisis
Addressing immediate problems can alleviate stress and add some stability, but the work can’t stop there. Leaders must implement long-term strategies to ensure the healthcare workforce is stable and able to meet the increasing demands of the industry. The following episodes detail some of the sweeping changes leaders must make to take work off clinicians’ plates, ensure technology is boosting efficiency, and make the work better for clinicians.
Radio Advisory 173: 4 ways to prevent a physician shortage [Bonus content]
The challenge
We’ve heard a lot of concern from leaders about a potential physician shortage. How concerned should we be?
And what interventions can help prevent shortages in the future? According to Advisory Board physician experts Sebastian Beckmann and Daniel Kuzmanovich, we shouldn’t be worried about a lack of physicians in primary care, but we should instead be concerned about their capacity.
The opportunity
If primary care organizations implement proven productivity improvements, they have the potential to not only avoid a physician shortage, but also improve the lives of providers. This includes utilizing advanced practice providers (APPs) and adopting interventions such as workflow optimization, care team redesign, telemedicine, and other capacity-enabling technologies. Rural markets should also consider ways to be more innovative with their use of APPs to better respond to any potential shortage. If these interventions are implemented, they can help alleviate the shortage while also improving provider practice.
The pep talk
We can avoid those shortages, even in the hardest hit areas, if we put in the hard strategic work. It isn’t just about hiring more physicians, more APPs — it’s also about using those providers in the right way.
Eliza Daily
Advisory Board director of physician and medical group research
Radio Advisory 162: Addressing the workforce crisis: Insights from University Hospitals’ leaders
The challenge
Recent data shows that turnover among novice nurses is up, and the time to fill vacant nursing positions has also increased substantially. And as University Hospitals’ Chief Quality & Clinical Transformation Officer Peter Pronovost and Chief Nursing Executive Michelle Hereford explained to our host Rae Woods, we’re already seeing negative consequences in patients’ quality of treatment and safety. These alarming trends indicate a need a redesign the work of the registered nurse in acute care.
The opportunity
Before introducing new technology or processes to try and solve a problem, engage your teams to learn what currently isn’t working. Peter and Michelle talked about a discussion they facilitated with nurse managers and frontline staff. Over the course of the discussion, the team was able to recognize and remove unnecessary belowlicense administrative burdens on the workforce. This conversation alone resulted in a 60% reduction of order
sets.
The pep talk
This is both a humbling and hopeful story. The humbling part is what we live every day with burnout and unsafe things. The hopeful part is [to] think about how much better we’re going to be if you can take even of that 60% out. I mean, that’s breathtaking, right? If you can free up that amount of time to do work and the nurses sense joy in this, my sense is if we do the technology pieces that we mentioned, it’s easily 50% of staff’s time that could be freed up to better care for people or get more balanced workloads.
Peter Pronovost
University Hospitals Chief Quality & Clinical Transformation Officer
Radio Advisory 179: Future-proofing healthcare requires a tech-enabled workforce
The challenge
Organizations are investing a lot of time and effort into things like recruitment and retention practices, hiring contract labor, or offering overtime pay to retain staff or fill workforce gaps. But as Advisory Board experts Allyson Paiewonksy and Jordan Peterson note in this conversation, all these things are short-term solutions that don’t address the drivers of burnout challenges (like administrative burden and repetitive, below-license tasks) which can be alleviated with the right technology. However, leaders are concerned with the investment this requires, or they are investing in the wrong technologies, making clinicians’ workflows even harder.
The opportunity
Getting buy-in for new technology can be hard when so much attention is paid to the up-front investment rather than the long-term return. However, today’s workforce problems are getting too expensive to not try something new. The first step in optimizing clinician workflow is talking to your clinicians to understand what they want and need from technology, like reduced administrative burden or extending clinician reach. Also, understand that technology isn’t a silver bullet that will solve all your workforce problems. Combining technology solutions with best practices in recruitment and retention will help your organization solve its unique workforce challenges.
The pep talk
Once you’ve asked your clinicians where they need help and you’ve implemented technology to help there, figure out what you’re going to do with the time that your clinicians now have back in their day, and make sure you’re not just doing more burdensome tasks that are going to lead to burnout and turnover. Be really intentional about how that time is spent once you’ve alleviated some of those pressures on your clinicians.
Allyson Paiewonsky
Advisory Board nursing expert.
| Listen to our podcast, Radio Advisory
Radio Advisory is your weekly download on how to untangle healthcare’s most pressing challenges, powered by 40 years of Advisory Board research. |
|
| Whether you’re concerned about workforce shortages, industry disruptors, or health equity strategy, we’re here to help. Host and seasoned researcher Rachel (Rae) Woods talks with industry experts to equip you with knowledge to confront today’s unanswered questions in healthcare. New episodes drop every Tuesday. |
RELATED RESOURCES
IS THIS CONTENT HELPFUL?
INTENDED AUDIENCE
Employers
Hospitals and health systems
Post-acute care providers
AFTER YOU READ THIS
You’ll learn strategies to help strengthen recruitment and retention.
You’ll gain perspective on global and domestic innovations that can improve efficiency.
You’ll learn how to develop a strategy that confronts the root causes of the workforce crisis.
AUTHORS
Katy (/expert-Rachel Woods (/expert-
directory/katy-directory/rachelAnderson anderson)Vice president, woods)
Brand content spokesperson and lead and host, Radio Advisory producer, Radio
Posted on October 27, 2023
Updated on November 02, 2023
TOPICS
Copyright © 2022 Advisory Board. All rights reserved.
Katy (/expert-Rachel Woods (/expert-
directory/katy-directory/rachelAnderson anderson)Vice president, woods)
Brand content spokesperson and lead and host, Radio Advisory producer, Radio
Posted on October 27, 2023
Updated on November 02, 2023
TOPICS
Copyright © 2022 Advisory Board. All rights reserved.
