VISTA Workforce Optimization

According to Deloitte, 51% to 60% of hospitals could hit negative margins by 2025. The healthcare industry is notoriously difficult to manage, given the constant payer mix changes, regulatory pressures, and rising labor costs. Behind the veil of regulatory frictions and insurance confusion, tangible ways to contain and control costs can offer immediate relief. Reducing turnover can significantly reduce your costs, improve quality of care, and help you build sustainable and stable financial models to tackle the other challenges. 

The average healthcare system is no stranger to financial pressures. Even back in 2017, Deloitte estimated that over 50% of hospitals would hit negative margins by 2025 due to payer mix changes, regulatory frictions, and rising labor costs (which are primarily fueled by hyper-competitive fields like physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants. Now, with COVID-19, an accelerated regulatory atmosphere, a shift in practice habits (e.g., the rise of virtual visits), and shaky supply chains, the pressure to build resilient healthcare revenue streams has never been higher.

Rural hospitals face multiple challenges in providing care to their patients. Issues such as reliable transportation, an inability to find staff willing to work in their area, and a general lack of resources compared to urban centers can impact patient care. These challenges aren't insurmountable, and healthcare organizations can help mitigate them by turning to telehealth.

In-house recruiters may not be working directly with patients, but the decisions they make regarding the workforce have great potential to influence your medical group’s overall performance.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. hospitals were already amid historic workforce shortages and shrinking budgets. Coronavirus only exacerbated this growing trend, shining a spotlight on the American healthcare system's challenges and flaws.

Misinformation continues to surround the use of the Q6 modifier, or the billing for services provided by a locum tenens physician, resulting in mistakes that prove costly or even detrimental to practices, as they may result in audits or further disciplinary action.

Healthcare leaders have different ideas on what workforce optimization is and why it is essential to their healthcare system. Understanding contingent staffing needs, providing in-demand clinicians to your facilities, and knowing what is costing the healthcare system, can be overwhelming, especially in today's challenging and changing environment. 

VISTA recently embarked on an engagement with a large multi-specialty medical and healthcare management group to discuss the challenges they were facing. These challenges included the following major areas: cost containment, transparency, compliance, and how to reduce the dependency on locum tenens.

According to AAMC, by 2032, the American healthcare system will be short almost 122,000 physicians. This ongoing physician shortage is only going to get worse. With the lack of qualified clinicians, it is leaving healthcare systems and facilities scrambling to fill positions and balance the need for continuity of care against the need to control staffing costs.

Patient expectations have never been higher. And it is up to you to create an effective workforce management strategy that will help you meet or exceed these expectations. While plans may vary according to hospital type, they all focus on the strategic utilization of physicians and other hospital employees to meet or exceed customer expectations.