Healthcare is changing rapidly. The future of work is embracing technology to keep up with modern-day demands. Whether it be via in-person healthcare or virtual options, patients want options. For providers, burnout is causing a shortage of healthcare workers who want flexible and hybrid workforce models. We talked with Callie Andrews, SVP & COO at Wellstar Kennestone & Windy Hill Hospitals, and LeeAnna Spiva, AVP Nursing Practice and Operations, Wellstar Health System, to discuss the future of work in healthcare.
What do you envision as the future of work in healthcare? Will it continue to be in-person, hybrid, or shift to more virtual options? Do you think healthcare or some aspects of it- are suitable to be remote? Is it efficient? What are the pitfalls? What are the benefits?
CALLIE: Hybrid with enhanced virtual options. I think the workforce market will drive us to this in order to maintain access to high-quality talent. It can create real efficiencies and real inefficiencies. At the front lines, we all wear many hats and do duties outside of our normal job duties. When certain jobs move remote, it leaves those extra duties at the front lines that have to be resourced and sometimes are not contemplated. The benefits: regional access to labor, opportunity for more efficient and focused work. The pitfalls: we need systems to manage productivity, duties left behind as stated above. Also, healthcare is traditionally an in-person environment (people caring for people) so we have to ensure we maintain the quality and safety of people looking out for people (visual cues, personal connections, experience).
LEANNA: Georgia faces one of the most significant nursing workforce gaps. We’ve got a huge nursing shortage, high rates of burnout related to turnover. We have to be nimble in this space. We have to look at how we deliver care and look at different care models. Currently, we are experimenting at one of our facilities at Paulding with virtual nursing. The nurse is working remotely at home caring for patients as well as discharging them. We’re adding in admissions, so they’re able to care for that patient at home and remote into the patient’s room. As well as bring in their family members. Basically, tasks that take the burden off our frontline. It’s kind of refreshing to know that we can do things differently and that it’s OK to do things differently.
More people are pushing to work from home to have a better work/life balance. Is it possible for clinical staff to have a schedule that utilizes a hybrid model?
CALLIE: Some MDs/Advanced Practice Providers bundle their virtual visits on Friday mornings so they can then work from home for the full day. There are ways teams can structure work-from-home days/schedules that provide for consistent onsite, but this isn’t always possible.
LEANNA: I think we’re in an experimental phase. I think we’re open to asking – what does this look like going forward? We’ve got to be nimble and agile. Our team members want to be able to have remote work. We have to coach our leadership so that we can change the culture. We may not be right there in front of individuals, but people can be productive and efficient at home or at another location.
Some clinicians are reluctant to embrace or consider hybrid remote models- why do you think that is? Quality concerns, liability concerns, perhaps ethical or moral concerns?
CALLIE: All of the above. I believe the pitfalls above are many of the reasons why.
LEANNA: I think there are leaders that are resistant. I think the reason they may be resistant is maybe prior history working in a virtual model. They may not have seen productivity. But that is why you set expectations about how you scale and define the work, roles and responsibilities.
Do you think patients/consumers expect healthcare to be a certain way? In-person? Or do you believe they are open-minded to having options?
CALLIE: I believe different segments of consumers expect healthcare to be in person. Others are more open and desire flexibility and ease of access of virtual options. My parents, for example, will not do a remote visit. They are in their 70s.
LEANNA: I think patients and families should know they have an option, a choice in their healthcare. Let them know they can have an in-person visit or a virtual visit. There are things you can do now with technology that you could not do 10 years ago. It’s evolving, and we need to be in the race to keep up, or we’re going to be way back behind.
As a patient, is there anything that would concern or bother you about having your clinician work from home?
CALLIE: Quality of the technology is a huge consideration. Hearing distractions in the background should be a never event as it suggests distraction and would give anyone concern about caregiver attentiveness.
LEANNA: I think you know that’s where professionalism must come into play. You wouldn’t want to see somebody sitting there with a ball cap and t-shirt. You want to replicate the medical office in a virtual environment and see a professional with their lab coat.
Your Voice: Medical Professionals Working Remotely
We went out on the street to see how people react to the idea of healthcare professionals working remotely. How do you think the “future of work” applies to frontline healthcare workers?
Survey Results: Future of Work Survey
Thank you for taking our Future of Work survey. Check out the results:
