Staffing Crisis? AMS Can Help!
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The challenges of a nursing shortage are not new, but the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the problem causing significant strain on organizations. On Sunday, August 22, 2021, the New York Times reported the impact of the nursing shortage on Ocean Springs Hospital in Mississippi. The hospital is part of the 500-bed Singing River Health System with 169 unfilled nursing positions, forcing administration to reduce inpatient bed capacity by 30%. With fewer beds for admissions, the Ocean Springs Emergency Department is overcrowded, with some very sick patients waiting in their cars and ambulances holding patients in the parking lot. The article describes the strain on healthcare workers and the many challenges hospitals face when there isn’t enough staff, especially RNs required to care for patients. Although the article is focused on the nursing shortage, organizations are dealing with healthcare shortages in several key areas that contribute directly and indirectly to patient care.
Solving the shortage of healthcare workers will take time; in the meantime, there should be focused efforts to ease the burden of work of front-line healthcare staff. Now more than ever, organizations must ensure that clinical and operational workflows are focused and efficient. Most processes are complex and impacted by multiple variables such as, but not limited to reluctance to change, unquestioned past practices, adequate staffing and skill mix, the physical layout of the department, technology and/or the lack thereof, workflow, and constraints of other departments. Simplifying processes is not always a simple undertaking often requiring valuable time and resources to assess, redefine and implement changes. AMS can assist your teams with this important work.
Over the last 10 years, AMS has worked with more than 200 clients performing operational assessments that are focused on ensuring each organization is functioning efficiently and its teams are performing optimally. Your organization can be confident that our team of experienced AMS consultants will work with your leadership team and staff in a highly collaborative and engaging way to perform assessments and identify key workflows and opportunities for improvement, recommend improvement strategies, and provide implementation support. AMS can facilitate high-level participation of your interdisciplinary teams, ensure all stakeholders and ancillary stakeholders are involved in the process to map the complexity of the current state, identify all real and potential wasted steps in the process, challenge current assumptions, introduce best practices, and encourage innovation to streamline workflows.
We welcome the opportunity to talk with you about how AMS can assist your organization’s efforts to ease the burden of work as you navigate the uncertainties of the pandemic and the healthcare labor shortages that are impacting the care, treatment, and services provided by your organization.
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Effectively Operationalize Labor Benchmarks
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Be Data-Driven: It is crucial to make staffing decisions based on accurate data, especially in today’s challenging healthcare environment. A key volume metric that reflects your labor resource and is readily available needs to be selected. The use of valid metrics enhances leadership engagement, provides support for decision-making, and promotes focus and coordination across the organization.
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Learn About Workflow Best Practices: Investigate workflow best practices in use within and outside your organization. Contact AMS, read related professional articles, and search the internet for best practice ideas that will assist you with enhancing your organization’s effectiveness and productivity.
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Develop Workflow Change Options: When productivity does not meet established benchmarks or a desire to exceed benchmarks exists, a critical assessment of departmental workflows is necessary. This assessment can be difficult and unproductive without strong departmental leadership and vision. Develop a workgroup of key stakeholders who can identify and support trialing workflow changes to improve efficiency.
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Implement Workflow Changes: When ready to implement a thoughtfully redesigned workflow, be sure to effectively communicate the changes and provide background motives to all impacted team members, including those in other departments who are affected. Once in production, continue to further revise workflows, as necessary.
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Monitor Regularly: Productivity should be monitored for each business unit at least monthly. The objective is to provide the lowest paid hours per key volume metric while providing the highest quality of care. Regular, ongoing monitoring allows for real-time identification of outliers and trends and enables an organization to respond nimbly with appropriate staffing adjustments.
Operationalizing benchmarks effectively is essential to making strong operational and strategic decisions that will drive organizational performance and long-term success.
How AMS Can Help:
AMS has been helping healthcare organizations become more efficient for over 50 years. Here are just a few ways we can help your organization with labor benchmarking:
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AMS Works to Understand Client-Specific Workflows and Customer Needs: During benchmark development, AMS works closely, either on-site or remotely, to understand their clients’ workflows and unique customer demands to establish appropriate benchmarks for each business unit.
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AMS Provides Function-Based Benchmarks: AMS benchmarks are based on the key functions performed within each of their client’s business units and customized for its unique demands. AMS utilizes the comprehensive data within its extensive client database to compare clients to other like organizations within the database. AMS monitors industry changes that affect productivity, and regularly updates benchmarks when needed.
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AMS Assists with Implementation of Best Practices and Labor Benchmarks: AMS consultants are healthcare experts who have personally worked in hospitals and laboratories for many years. Our consultants are available to assist with operational assessments, workflow analyses, and implementation of best practices, labor benchmarks, and productivity monitoring.
For more information on how AMS can help your organization, please contact any of the AMS Principals:
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AMS can help your organization!
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