America is currently facing a widespread staffing shortage problem. This is probably not much of a surprise to anyone who has been trying to run a business over the last couple of years. When the COVID-19 outbreak began, a record number of Americans exited the workforce. At that time, the vast majority of people did so because they had no choice, as lockdowns forced many businesses to shut their doors. It was assumed that everyone would return to their jobs once things began to open back up.
Being the boss of your own practice carries a lot of responsibilities. First and foremost, you are responsible for managing an entire staff, and that often requires you to conduct awkward, unpleasant or otherwise hard sorts of conversations.
Security & Data Management | Healthcare Technology | Financial Management | Staff Management
Fraud is one of those topics that no one really enjoys talking about. It can be uncomfortable to think that someone in your practice, even someone you are close to and believe you have a strong relationship with, would steal from you. But it happens. And you need to be aware of it because fraud and theft are far more common in healthcare practices than you might expect.
Welcome to the second installment of our two-part blog series on building a high performing team. In Part 1, we took a look at the impact psychological safety has on your team and covered methods for building it within your practice. However, creating an environment that fosters psychological safety is only the beginning. In this blog, we will conclude by following up with a discussion of how understanding the values of your practice and setting the right level of expectations can help you create a more effective team.
There is far more to successfully running a practice than just EHR and Practice Management solutions. While there are many management and leadership studies out there, far too few of them actually deal with the nuances that leaders deal with at practices day to day. Your practice is also a business, and like a business it needs an effective team.
Patient Engagement | Healthcare Technology | Staff Management
A lack of patient loyalty could be costing your practice more than you might think. According to one study, a patient leaving due to dissatisfaction can result in a financial loss of $200,000 over the life of a practice. The same study also found that one in eight patients claimed they had left their healthcare provider in the last year, and that one in three were planning to leave their current providers sometime in the next two years. In a healthcare marketplace where consumers have taken more control of their healthcare choices, it can be easier than ever to lose patients due to a poor patient experience.
Staffing shortages are nothing new. While staffing problems have definitely been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the truth is that a serious nursing shortage had already existed in the United States for a number of years. According to one study, more than one million additional nurses were going to be needed by 2020 in order to hold off worsening the trend. Those needs were not met. And now, in order to stop this shortage from growing further, an additional 11 million nurses will need to join the workforce over the next six years.
In a blog article back in November of last year, we took a close look at the ongoing problem of physician and staff burnout in healthcare, as well as how EHR should be reducing the problem instead of adding to it. However, that was 2019. Needless to say, 2020 has turned out to be a completely different ballgame and the world we now live in is a very different place. Unfortunately, when it comes to burnout and mental health issues among healthcare workers, this situation has only worsened.
