Healthcare

Employee engagement has the potential to revolutionize healthcare delivery. Within the past decade, healthcare HR teams demonstrated a strong correlation between employee engagement and better patient outcomes and experiences. Today, the evidence is insurmountable. 

Many supporters of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare promote its potential for improving diagnostics, predicting treatment effectiveness and patient outcomes, and providing new insights into EHR data and population health. While AI does have potential for clinical application, it may also have a future in healthcare human resource (HR) departments.

The coronavirus pandemic sent seismic shifts through the healthcare industry, forcing organizations and workforces to evolve at a breathtaking speed. For the first time, the American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration (ASHHRA) annual conference was held virtually this past August. While many healthcare systems were gearing up for change before COVID-19 hit, the pandemic exponentially accelerated the pace of change.

Hospitals and other healthcare organizations are increasingly focused on improving the quality of patient care. This is driven partly by the move to value-based reimbursement models, competition among healthcare companies, and the more recent COVID-19 public health emergency, which put a spotlight on healthcare’s strengths and weaknesses.

With more attention than ever placed on the quality of care, what can healthcare organizations do to improve? Here are a few ideas you should consider.

Healthcare organizations are changing and adapting at a startling velocity. COVID-19’s rapid spread accelerated changes that were on the distant horizon at the beginning of the year throughout the U.S. As human resources professionals, much of the responsibility for helping your workforce navigate the new pace of change falls squarely on your shoulders. 

As COVID-19 continues its course, schools across the U.S. have embraced distance learning to prioritize student safety and wellbeing in the midst of the pandemic. But most healthcare education programs rely on months of clinical training to adequately prepare students for handling patient relationships and needs. How will these programs have to adapt to provide high-quality clinical care education virtually?

COVID-19 continues to spread across the U.S. and it’s having a huge impact on the healthcare industry. Optimizing patient outcomes and saving lives on the frontlines of COVID-care rely on skilled and resilient staff with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Healthcare HR teams and leaders face enormous challenges, from evolving staffing needs within the organization to meeting the changing needs of the larger community they serve. And the pace of change during this crisis has been dizzying.

Individuals who engage in fraud or abuse in the healthcare industry can put patients and taxpayers at risk of physical or financial harm. For this reason, the U.S. Office of the Inspector General (OIG) can exclude certain people or organizations from providing services under federally funded healthcare programs. 

Diversity and inclusion (D&I) are imperative to driving bottom-line results in healthcare, but those initiatives frequently stagnate at the organizational values stage. A survey from PwC found that 68% of respondents cited D&I as a stated value or priority at their organization, but half of respondents felt that diversity was a barrier to progression. 

Real change requires an integrated action plan. 

The healthcare workplace has long been plagued by a shortage of qualified workers and an employee turnover rate of around 20% in 2018, higher than the all-industry average of 15%. In the face of these challenges, healthcare HR professionals must develop thoughtful, effective retention strategies to help their organizations attract and retain top talent, reduce the costs associated with employee hiring and turnover, and remain competitive.