Healthcare workforces seek solutions to recover and thrive
Redefining what it means to work in healthcareIn 2024, after bearing the brunt of the near-constant friction of the last few years, the people who power healthcare continue to ask for fair pay, safe working conditions, high-quality outcomes for their patients, and reduced administrative burdens. Their call is foundational, but the solution is difficult given the complexity of the healthcare system, the restriction of people and resources, and the focus on profit.
The possibilities of a new system of care growing from the creative and chaotic roots of change can be both inspiring and anxiety-provoking. The possibilities of more person-centered care enabled by innovation are tempered by the realities of the administrative tasks necessary to capture comprehensive, meaningful, and accurate clinical data. When seeking technology-based workforce solutions, focus on solving broken processes humans either can’t easily or don’t want to do, finding solutions that empower employees, and avoiding or sunsetting any systems or solutions that impede progress.
Automation and AI take on burdensome burnout tasks
Far from robots replacing people in crucial care delivery interactions, 2024 will be the year the healthcare industry adopts automation and generative AI (GenAI) to take over tasks that have piled up on healthcare workers over the years, limiting the time they have to do what they love most: patient care, solving complex problems, or designing innovative health plan solutions.
From ambient charting to documentation generation and robotic process automation easing bulky swivel-chair processes, the healthcare industry is poised to reduce pressure on the workforce, retain talent, and increase the attractiveness of positions by reducing administrative burdens through smart technologies.
It is important for organizations to use GenAI responsibly and with the right governance. GenAI requires oversight, evaluation, and workforce change management through upskilling or retraining, as these solutions change job responsibilities and needs.
Prescriptive deep learning analysis paves the way for evolution
The healthcare industry sits on 50 petabytes of unused data annually that could prescribe staffing ratios months in advance, zoom in on micro and macro changes that could redefine safety and clinical outcomes, and facilitate behavior change to improve clinical experience and patient outcomes. Deep learning applications have the potential to eliminate the stressors that influence burnout and attrition, enabling clinicians to focus on person-centered care.
The shift to value-based care incentivizes what matters
As part of the value-based care evolution, healthcare practitioners cautiously anticipate concentrating on their core mission: delivering high-quality care to patients, families, and communities. While highly anticipated, attempting to shift from volume to value poses an immediate burnout risk for central service teams like clinical operations, IT, technology, and product who may face unrealistic expectations amidst workforce and resource challenges.
In the implementation and adoption phases of the value-based care shift, focusing on organizational effectiveness and change impact will be key to preventing burnout on the way to positive change.
Focus on change management, communication, and hybrid solutions
Though healthcare workforce challenges persist, and more disruption is mounting within systems and in the headlines, the future of healthcare is wrapped in possibility, positive change, and a refreshed outlook as we shift to welcome smarter technologies, improved processes, and better supported workforces.
When accelerating change for the sake of supporting healthcare workforces, it’s imperative to consider the change management point-of-view outlined in the chaos perspective—that change, while necessary to reimagine what’s possible, needs to be built together and in accordance with the people within the system:
“Fostering healthy change implies moving past old notions of simply managing, adapting, or coping with it, to the creation of environments in which people are encouraged to learn and able to work towards building a better community—a process called change-ability.”
Liz Taylor, City of New York University
The new horizon for healthcare workers is one in which the people who power our system no longer have to manage or cope with their environment but in which their environment nurtures and provides for them.
Slalom contributors: Tiffany Fitzgerald, Brianna Fuller
