The past few years have taught healthcare organizations to expect the unexpected. While this is certainly easier said than done, one of the most effective ways to prepare for unseen threats is to develop a strategic plan that covers how to implement and manage a rapid response/surge staffing program.
Healthcare as a whole is no stranger to staffing shortages. They existed even pre-pandemic, despite their recent exacerbation. Knowing exactly what to do during a time of crisis is critical to containing staffing costs, ensuring favorable patient outcomes, and setting up the organization for future success.
One of the more prominent staffing challenges that healthcare organizations have faced recently is their ability to attract and retain talent. The pandemic widened the cracks in this proverbial foundation when spikes in patient volumes caused staff to work overtime, burnout more frequently, and succumb to the aptly-named 'turnover contagion.' With such high pressure to fill vacant roles in order to keep up with increasing demand, organizations found themselves relying on contingent staff more often.
Unfortunately, despite the pandemic's cessation, burnout has remained. Healthcare as a whole is seeing increasing patient volumes and a dwindling workforce — the American Medical Association estimates that healthcare's total labor force has dropped lower than it was pre-COVID. Additionally, the industry is observing overall attrition, meaning there are more people leaving (whether due to burnout, retirement, or career changes) than entering the workforce.
A shrinking labor pool, among other problems, have initiated reliance on contingent workers to maintain day-to-day operations and during times of increased patient volumes.
For a more in-depth look at challenges healthcare faces, read '2023 Strategic Workforce Challenges.'
However, Managed Service Programs like HWL have proven to mitigate the vast majority of staffing challenges that healthcare organizations currently face. By containing contract labor costs, on which facilities have been increasingly reliant, and increasing access to qualified talent pools, organizations are able to rest easy knowing operations will have minimal interruptions. This is achieved through:
While the utilization of rapid response staffing services is relatively infrequent, it can make or break operations when its necessity arises. This can be triggered by unexpected, external factors such as in the case of a disease outbreak or pandemic, or it can be due to internal factors such as turnover contagion.
Regardless of reason, there are some ways organizations can implement and manage rapid response staffing programs to ensure operational continuity during crises.
The first step toward creating a strategic surge staffing plan is analyzing the reasons why such need could arise in or around your organization, creating a formalized plan, and communicating it to key stakeholders.
This plan should include elements such as:
MSPs assist organizations by managing all aspects of contingent staffing. For instance, HWL's MSP services include:
When a hospital system becomes strained, these MSPs become a life raft in chaotic waters. Being able to rely on a trustworthy partner to handle the bulk of staffing needs is imperative to reaching desirable patient outcomes, and thus organizational success.
Create an Internal Agency
With the help of a vendor management system (VMS), it has never been easier to create your own internal resource pool (IRP). This allows the organization to create a central database of contract and/or employed clinicians who have been pre-vetted and credentialed to work in a given facility or department. In the event that surge staffing is needed, an internal resource pool is critical in saving precious time and money.
HWL's internal resource pool system, for instance, has a number of features that have assisted organizations during crises, including but not limited to:
For more information on internal resource pools, read 'Internal Resource Pools: Leveraging Tech for Optimal IRP Staffing.'
HWL Assists in Deploying Rapid Response Staffing
HWL's MSP, VMS, and internal resource pool services have helped hundreds of organizations across the country optimize their staffing programs, start or improve internal resource pools, accommodate the need for surge staff, and more.
By assisting your organization in optimizing and improving your healthcare workforce, your organization remains resilient and flexible, even during volatile or unpredictable times. Our state-of-the-art, proprietary talent management technology leverages customizable functionality to meet your organization's unique needs.
During the early days of the pandemic, HWL assisted the Georgia Department of Community Health and the Georgia Department of Health in deploying surge staff to hundreds of facilities across the state while using market data to pay competitive rates all while containing overall costs.
We helped them keep ICU and MedSurg nursing rates lower than the national average and neighboring states (Florida and Texas) so they could accommodate the influx of patients without breaking the bank.
In total, HWL was able to assist in the deployment of nearly 8,000 nurses (RN’s), licensed practical nurses (LPN’s), and certified nursing assistants (CNA’s) to over 250 locations. These surge staffers together provided over five million hours of service and care—that adds up to over 570 years.
Read here for a more detailed breakdown on program costs and how money was saved during a global crisis.
Find out more about our platform or schedule a demo here!