HR

By Scott Cormier

It can happen anytime, anywhere.  Workplace violence isn’t confined to one person, on room or one act.  In 2014, a 68 year-old patient pulled a bar from the side of his hospital bed and attacked a team of nurses at a Minnesota hospital.  In 2018, a hospital shooting in Chicago — which left two innocent healthcare workers and a law enforcement officer dead — made national headlines and heightened healthcare leaders concerns about violence in the healing environment.

According to a 2016 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, 80% of emergency department workers will personally experience violence in their careers.  In addition, 100% of emergency room nurses reported verbal assault and 82.1% reported physical assault in the past year.

Workplace violence entails “any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation or other threatening disruptive behavior that occurs at the work site,” according to OSHA.  With nearly 2 million American workers reporting that they have been victims of workplace violence each year, the time is now to act against this too-common occurrence.

[Read more…] about 10 steps to workplace violence reduction

By Chuck Taylor, David Murdock and Theresa Brandon

A healthcare organization’s workforce can consume as much as 50% of net operating revenue. Optimizing workforce efficiency is a major priority for finance leaders. However, identifying effective workforce development and cost control strategies is complex. As any hospital CFO knows, there is a big difference between potential gains and true hard-dollar improvements.

Consider the following scenario: A hospital finance team identifies an opportunity to reduce excessive premium pay in the nursing division, potentially saving $20 million per year. They invest in a series of initiatives aimed at improving flexible staffing strategies. However, for a variety of reasons, the organization is unable to hire key roles in a timely manner or consistently retain staff. This forces unit managers to increase agency nurse utilization, overtime pay and shift bonuses, undercutting projected savings. At year end, cost per unit of service has actually increased. 

Labor cost reduction can be like squeezing a balloon — applying pressure to one area can make weaknesses in another area expand. In the example above, the flexible staffing initiative faltered because recruiting and retention did not meet the organization’s needs. But these shortfalls are often driven by a series of complex interactions between factors like compensation, professional development, staffing and management structures.  

A healthcare workforce is a complex system. It has multiple components, and each component drives costs and outcomes throughout the organization. To manage human capital effectively, finance leaders need a conceptual, integrated model to balance workforce investments and labor cost savings. 

[Read more…] about A New Model for Managing Human Capital

By Michelle Davey

The digital health industry is growing quickly. In 2018 alone, it received a recording-breaking $14 billion in funding. Healthcare has always been a hub for innovation and growth, but pair it with the critical clinician burnout problem, and we’re in dire need of a workplace revolution.

In fact, our clinicians aren’t just burned out. They’re our canaries in the healthcare “coal mines,” showing us that it’s time to change. They’re 15 times more likely to experience burnout than any other working professional, and that number is even higher among female clinicians and specialists like urologists and neurologists. Clinicians are also killing themselves at alarming rates.

If this doesn’t signal that it’s time for healthcare to establish a new way to work, what will?

Technology will help us transform the workplace. Here’s how.

[Read more…] about How Technology Is Changing the Future of HR and the Workplace

By Cara Cook

Many healthcare executives are concerned that patient care will suffer when they are challenged to reduce labor costs. However, leaders often overlook opportunities to better align staff with patient workload. 

In fact, implementing creative staffing solutions with a data-driven approach allows hospitals to reduce labor expense, while reinforcing their commitment to specific nursing ratios and quality care. While these decisions require thoughtful review of historical data, the results are only enhanced when executive leadership empowers managers with labor management resources to take ownership of their department’s productivity performance.

Analyzing the Right Data

Department managers should not make critical staffing decisions—particularly those related to cost reduction—until they are equipped with data. 

To capitalize on labor cost savings opportunities that do not impact nurse time at the bedside, understanding census level timing is key. One strategy is analyzing monthly patient intake and discharge data over several years, as this reveals seasonality trends. 

For example, during a typical winter, Sun Belt states such as Arizona and Florida experience a surge in short-term residents and visitors. In turn, many health systems there experience a corresponding influx of emergency room visits. 

[Read more…] about Reducing Labor Spend: How the Right Data Reveals Seasonal Solutions