VISTA Workforce Optimization

The growing physician shortage has a significant impact on healthcare staffing, creating challenges for medical organizations. More specifically, it’s making it difficult for them to recruit and retain quality physicians to provide proper care to patients.

Healthcare organizations face a variety of staffing challenges. As a result of an ongoing physician shortage, the market for the best talent has become increasingly more competitive. Other staffing challenges include difficulty in filling job vacancies, expansions, and mergers. Staffing challenges may impact healthcare systems in many different ways, leading to lost revenue, a higher workload for existing staff members, poor patient experiences, and more. Below are some strategies that hospitals and other healthcare facilities can use to overcome staffing challenges and boost profitability.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the cost of qualified clinicians rose by $24 billion for healthcare organizations. In addition, clinical labor costs increased by 8% per patient, leading to a 52% increase in overtime.  

Social media recruiting has become an essential element of attracting new talent to job openings. Amid a 15-year high on talent shortages (69% of companies report talent shortages), social media has become a preferred method for employers and job seekers alike. For example, 81% of job seekers prefer to see and apply for job posts on Facebook, and 58% of recruiters found it best to use social media in hiring new job candidates. 

The Maine Hospital Association (MHA) is the primary advocate for community-governed hospitals located in the state with the Maine State Legislature, the U.S. Congress, and federal and state regulatory agencies. Based in Augusta, Maine, MHA formed a partnership with VISTA in 2004 to find a solution to hospital staffing shortages.

We spoke with Tamara Butts, MHA Director of Business Development and Administration, to talk about the organization and its partnership with VISTA.

Hospitals have experienced challenges that are unprecedented in the scope of modern healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic. The global health crisis was exacerbated by unexpected costs and difficulties finding the staff necessary to care for many patients needing immediate attention. During the unprecedented situation, the New Hampshire Hospital Association (NHHA) helped all 31 of their member hospitals ensure that they had all the resources and staff they needed to provide the care their patients deserve.

Recent EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) guidance permits hospitals to require or incentivize staff members to be vaccinated for COVID-19. Healthcare administrators who have experienced pushback from employees unwilling to comply with a proposed mandate are now faced with the challenge of how to impose it. With the Food and Drug Administration's full approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on August 23, 2021, the argument some medical staff members have used, citing a rushed process, has lost its validity. Health departments of a few states, like New York, have even announced that religious exemptions would not be an available alternative to vaccination.

Healthy company culture is essential to the success of any business. For example, 88% of employment seekers say a positive work culture is vital to their satisfaction with a job. A hospital or medical practice is no different from any other workplace in that regard. Employee satisfaction impacts recruitment, retention, and productivity. It also affects how patients are treated.

The COVID-19 pandemic upended the way the world works. Nowhere was this more in evidence than in the healthcare workplace, where essential workers were stretched to the limits of their endurance and recruiters faced obstacles like never before.

Clinicians are necessary for successful healthcare delivery. The roles they play in quality patient care, disease management, patient satisfaction, and overall population health are central to hospitals, clinical operations, and society as a whole. However, when a healthcare system experiences a high turnover rate in its clinician pool, the related costs are astronomical. For example, investing in a new hire can demand upwards of one million dollars just for the first year.