Despite grappling with staffing shortages for years now, healthcare facilities across the United States continue to feel the strain of increased turnover, fluctuations in demand, and shifting work-life priorities. So far, solutions remain unsustainable and ineffective, and there are still more challenges to come.
- The CDC anticipates an increase in senior population growth and hospitalizations:
They estimate that by 2060, 25% of the US population will be over the age of 65. An aging population increases the demand for healthcare services as the likelihood of developing chronic conditions like dementia, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, arthritis, and cancer rises. These ailments are the primary contributors to sickness, disability, mortality, and hospitalizations in the nation and create a greater need for healthcare professionals to provide medical care and support.
- Facilities are dealing with an exacerbated clinician shortage while staffing inefficiencies persist:
The pandemic intensified an already existing clinician shortage, causing inefficiencies, widening gaps in quality, and an overdependence on temporary clinicians. Stressful working conditions, long hours, and heavy workloads contribute to prevalent issues such as burnout, job dissatisfaction, and high turnover rates, causing clinicians to leave the profession. Not to mention medical school enrollments and training programs for healthcare professionals have not been able to keep pace with the growing demand for healthcare services.
In response to these concerns, a more holistic approach to recruitment and staffing is needed. But not just any new solution will do—increased inpatient stays in the face of a clinician shortage requires thoughtful action. A staffing model that helps rebalance recruitment efforts away from short-term fixes to more sustainable, long-term solutions.
Without a drastic change, we’ll continue to pour more resources into the top of a leaky staffing bucket, exacerbating the issues with unsustainable staffing cycles. No more band-aid solutions; It’s time to repair the holes in our staffing strategies.
How? With a healthcare talent ecosystem.
An ecosystem approach is the only staffing model that draws from its own portfolio of brands to present each customer with curated, scalable solutions, ensuring a strategy framework that’s adaptable to evolving needs and trends.
An ecosystem tackles your pain points at the source, addressing the root cause of issues. Treating only the symptoms of a problem without tackling the underlying cause is akin to putting a band-aid on the issue. This may provide temporary relief, but it doesn’t prevent the problem from reoccurring. Rather, attending to the root cause stops the leak at the source, breaking an inefficient cycle and ensuring a more comprehensive and lasting solution.
For a more in-depth look at a healthcare talent ecosystem’s purpose and potential, check out our Industry Insights article “What is a healthcare talent ecosystem?”
Here’s how an ecosystem holistically treats your biggest staffing headaches:
Staffing Challenge: Increase Efficiencies
Partnering with a comprehensive talent ecosystem reduces administrative complexity by minimizing reliance on third-party agencies. AI-driven recruitment tools within our technology platform, ciro talent management, streamlines job creation, quality candidate matches, and timekeeping, improving the efficiency of hiring processes. This optimizes talent management for leadership, saving time and effort traditionally spent on manual processes.
Case Study
Find out how the Medical Solutions’ healthcare talent ecosystem decreased bill rates by over 28% and cost per traveler by over 26% for a New Hampshire Level III Trauma Center: Relieving Administrative Burden Through Efficient Best Practices
Staffing Challenge: Fill Vital Gaps in Staffing
A healthcare talent ecosystem gives you access to a giant pool of healthcare professionals through multiple channels of talent, like per diem, local contractors, travel clinicians, direct hires, and international staff. This diversity allows you to find individuals with specific skills and expertise to fill critical roles and manage them easily in the ciro platform.
Case Study
See how the ecosystem helped a Pennsylvania facility fill substantial staffing gaps for a new unit opening amidst a high-demand holiday season: The Power of an MSP
Staffing Challenge: Control Costs
The talent ecosystem facilitates cost-effectiveness with strategic workforce planning, providing you with data and insights into workforce trends, regional demands, and skill gaps. With the help of ciro technology, you’re able to clearly align staffing levels with actual patient needs, optimizing your workforce and avoiding unnecessary expenses associated with understaffing or overstaffing.
(The ecosystem also helps streamline recruitment, reducing the time and resources spent on hiring and lowering recruitment-related expenses!)
Case Study
Discover how Medical Solutions’ ecosystem helped an Illinois-based facility facing nearly triple its normal number of travelers by implementing a “try before you buy” temp to perm program: Temp to Perm Program Helps Control Costs While Retaining Quality Clinicians
Staffing Challenge: Elevate Clinical Quality
Our Clinical Team plays a pivotal role in elevating clinical quality through a specialized four-step process. With decades of clinical experience and a passion for care, this team is the heartbeat of the entire hiring operation, ensuring only highly qualified and compatible travelers walk through your door. They work closely with you to:
- Develop a customized hiring strategy
- Streamline candidate review
- Conduct full interviews
- Provide ongoing job support and monitoring
They also help accelerate time-to-fill rates, increase retention, minimize backfill, and optimize overall workflow—elevating clinical quality across the board.
Staffing Challenge: Retain Staff
An ecosystem has the scope and scale to support you in adopting a flexible staffing model, which would allow you to implement features that support clinician work-life harmony, like flexible scheduling, remote work options, or part-time opportunities. Options like these contribute to building a positive work environment and enhance staff satisfaction, reducing burnout and turnover. Additionally, ciro offers insights into current and future demands, helping you more accurately predict workload needs and distribution.
Ready to lay the foundation for a more resilient, efficient, and adaptive workforce? An ecosystem approach is better equipped to break the cycle of ineffective recruitment solutions once and for all. Contact Medical Solutions today to discuss how any one of our ecosystem offerings can grow your workforce.