Medical groups in the United States employ thousands of people, ranging from physicians, nurses and other providers to administrators, IT specialists and support staff.
While there was a time when a position at a medical group was stable, COVID-19 altered that paradigm. At the height of the pandemic, more than 1.5 million healthcare workers lost their jobs. There is a looming concern about further disruption to employment due to the need to reduce non-emergent services and to embrace virtual care.
While staff reductions are the choice for some, many healthcare organizations are working to find alternative solutions. Some organizations are moving staff into other roles in the organization, perhaps assigning a nurse from an outpatient clinic to a hospital floor, or administrative staff to assist with COVID-19 testing or scheduling virtual visits. Additionally, nurses and other providers familiar with in-person care are connecting with patients via video screens, disrupting the traditional care delivery process.
Such circumstances have forced health system leaders to ask people to make significant changes to their professional and personal lives virtually overnight. As a result, workers have lost security and confidence. What was once stable has become acutely unstable and uncertain.
Workforce development as a solution
To address these challenges, workforce development is a vital resource to tap. Education can help inform, engage, and elevate individuals and roles, particularly those who want to advance their careers. Additionally, skills-based, high-quality healthcare education can:
- Refresh educational thinking
- Foster better leaders
- Provide needed skills
- Connect people with peers who can share insights and provide support.
Conversely, when leadership doesn’t support valued colleagues through training and skill development, it can result in excessive secondary costs — including lawsuits — higher turnover and poor job performance, all of which impact financial goals, stability and patient care. Most importantly, it can break the bonds of loyalty and commitment between an organization and its valued staff.
While there are similarities between the workforce development challenges of medical groups and hospitals — such as recruiting and retaining top talent, especially nurses — there are important differences. There’s been tremendous disruption to the medical group model due to the closure of many small- to mid-size practices and overall contraction within the industry. Such factors have created a level of instability that will likely result in staff reconsidering long-term plans, placing further pressure on the workforce.
When the threat from COVID-19 diminishes, there will be a significant demand for skilled workers across all healthcare settings, including medical groups. The industry will need workers of all ages with a wide range of skills.
Skills needed for today
What exactly are these skills? How can workforce development help staff attain knowledge? Building skills of value to our industry starts with having people who are intrinsically and emotionally connected with the industry’s purpose — to help those who are in need.
However, even emotionally connected workers need support. There is growing recognition that soft skills, such as resilience, flexibility and leadership, are vital components of a stable and robust workforce. The pandemic has elevated the need for helping healthcare workers with their resiliency and well-being; this too can be a topic of education and ongoing development.
Other essential skills should also be considered. For example, managers and marketing teams could gain value from a short program on analytics showing how to use data to solve problems. Nurses who are entering management positions, whose education has been more clinically focused, could benefit from courses in accounting, compliance, finance and principles of leadership to support their plans for continuous learning and development.
The pandemic resulted in a rapid transition for education programs to be offered online and in virtual classroom settings. While not new, web-based learning has changed in the past few years. It’s not about putting a PowerPoint on Zoom. It’s not about routine multiple-choice quizzes, during which learners try to find the shortest route to the end. The best online programs incorporate the latest science in online learning to ensure programs are engaging, relevant, and knowledge is retained and used.
Analyzing cost and benefit
Despite the recognized benefits of workforce development, some medical group administrators struggle with the issue of how to fund it in today’s marketplace. There are tough decisions to make.
Labor costs are about 50% or more for many healthcare organizations. Retaining staff and providing them with insights on critical issues, such as quality and patient satisfaction, help manage costs. Such attributes are also critical to consider as most organizations are concerned about the skill set of their future workforce.
As a leading healthcare system in the Midwest, MercyOne supports workforce development for the entire system, including its medical groups and clinics. To ensure a strong workforce, MercyOne provides ongoing educational programs for its 16,000 staff members.
As part of continuing education, MercyOne requires staff to complete learning modules annually in topics ranging from cybersecurity to leadership. All clinical and administrative staff, even senior leadership, are required to take these courses. Most programs are delivered online and are self-modulated. The goal is to ensure the entire organization has the skills needed to succeed in healthcare today.
Last year, each of MercyOne’s six facilities spent an average of $250,000 on degree and certificate-based educational assistance programs. The organization also incorporated skill-based learning to redeploy colleagues; for example, training colleagues in areas impacted by COVID-19 for new positions, such as in the fever unit or COVID-19 testing.
All told, MercyOne invests about $1.2 million annually on supporting colleagues to further education, including pursuit of advanced degrees. Retention rates for employees who participate in the program are well over 80% — making the education program a key component of the staffing and retention strategy.
Additionally, MercyOne offers targeted programs to reach organizational goals and initiatives. For example, in the past year, 600 leaders attended a course called “Unconscious Bias,” focused on diversity and inclusion, developed internally by MercyOne’s parent company. The organization also develops training to further meet specific goals. When the health system’s name changed to MercyOne, it was an ideal time to teach how culture and the new brand work together to align with the organization’s strategies, mission and vision.
More than 800 leaders were involved in the foundational teaching and learning of MercyOne’s culture across multiple sites. During the pandemic, this training was continuously demonstrated as team members came together to help and support one another in many ways. For example, as one community was hard hit by COVID-19, one that was impacted less volunteered to send nurses to its sister organization, even though it was more than six hours away. MercyOne’s divisions also frequently helped each other by sharing needed supplies, fulfilling a core principle of the organization’s culture: We are one team.
It is crucial to view building staff understanding of areas such as organizational culture, as well as skills and knowledge, as an investment, not an expense. An investment includes a return. The return is stability, loyalty and commitment — the characteristics you want from colleagues in uncertain times.
The industry should also view workforce development as a way to build and strengthen the DNA of an organization. Medical offices are often the front door to a larger health system. As the saying goes, “you can’t get a second chance to make a first impression.” It’s vital to ensure that the first impression is positive.
Seven steps for medical group workforce management
There are many features to consider for workforce development programs, especially when incorporating online programs:
- Strive for relevance: Now is not the time for theory. Learners need practical knowledge they can incorporate quickly to solve the problems they face.
- Make it flexible and easy to incorporate into already busy schedules: Open-ended courses are often not completed. Some general time parameters for completion of a program are beneficial. However, within that framework, let the students learn at their own pace.
- Take time to ensure content is relevant and provides immediate benefit and value.: For example, Dignity Health Global Education’s Mini-MBA in healthcare provides modules on the fundamentals of business such as healthcare economics, accounting and finance, as well as how to achieve diversity, equity, and inclusion in healthcare settings.
- Ensure the caliber of instructors and course developers is of the highest level: It is critical to have programs developed for the healthcare industry with recognized and respected healthcare leaders.
- Seek out programs affiliated with leading and recognized academic institutions: This will ensure that the program provides value and a sense of pride for the learner.
- Insist on a quantifiable ROI and set up the systems to measure value: Every dollar in healthcare is important. Look for vendors and partners that will work with you to ensure your investment provides the outcomes needed.
- Look for affordable programs: The organization and individual will have options to participate in programs deemed most beneficial.
Weathering the storm
No matter what the future holds for the healthcare industry, dedicated and highly skilled people will always be a necessity. Learning initiatives to give employees the knowledge for new positions and keep furloughed employees engaged can help care teams succeed and achieve organizational goals through the remainder of the pandemic.
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