The current state of healthcare staffing is insufficient to meet evolving needs. In many ways, the healthcare industry is at a crossroads as administrators, regardless of facility size and geographic location, face an increasing burden to increase efficiency and boost revenue.
We must innovate healthcare workforce solutions to address the challenges built over the past decade.
Aging Workforce—Most facilities have seen this firsthand. The greying of the workforce is leading to what could become a catastrophic staffing shortage. A 2022 survey found that 22% of RNs and 35% of physicians intend to retire within 5 years. Nursing and medical schools are not delivering trained graduates fast enough to account for this steep decline.
Recruitment and Retention—Along with an aging workforce, administrators face growing challenges from increased competition for top healthcare talent.. It takes longer to fill open positions and many are left unfilled. According to AAPPR, it takes 126 days, on average, to fill an open physician position. Some specialties, like Urology and Neurosurgery, take much longer—344 and 254 days respectively.
Regulatory and Compliance—New regulations continue to change the landscape as healthcare organizations work to stay compliant. In a study from a few years ago, AHA noted that health systems must comply with 629 regulatory requirements. Since then, that number has risen, meaning a greater administrative burden and expense.
Administrative Burden—With the challenges of maintaining compliance comes considerable expense. According to AHA, health systems spend more than $39 billion a year on administrative activities to maintain compliance. That is money that was diverted from direct patient care.
Disparate Systems and Technology—Many health systems use technology solutions that fail to deliver efficiency. High costs and limited integration between technologies and departments result in minimal value and benefits for providers.
With so many challenges in front of us, it is vital that we innovate to create solutions that drive efficiency, revenue and sustainability. That’s why Venn is reimaging healthcare workforce optimization with new solutions and services that solve for the problems administrators face on a daily basis.
For many healthcare providers, implementing new technology can carry a negative connotation. Clinicians typically expect it to add to their workload and be challenging to adopt. However, the right technology can enhance efficiency and free up clinicians’ time for patient care by improving data and optimizing workflows. By adopting Venn’s technology solution, health systems gain greater transparency and speed.
To ensure access to care, we need to have enough clinicians to meet the needs of our community. That starts with filling open positions and filling them faster. By rethinking how we fill open positions and integrating a dynamic locum tenens strategy, we can get better specialist coverage for our patients. It starts by allowing multiple agencies to work for you. With agencies working together to address your physician staffing needs, health systems can harness the power of Venn and customize their supplier panel to maximize efficiency.
Once a physician is hired, administrators need them on the job quickly, but too often the onboarding and credentialling process drags things to a crawl. With Venn’s innovative processes, we get clients out of the weeds and ensure physicians get to work faster. Our program managers remove the administrative burden and create a seamless onboarding experience for both administrators and clinicians.
Success in today’s healthcare landscape requires a different outlook than just a few years ago. That’s why Venn is innovating the way healthcare organizations think about workforce management with new processes, technology and solutions that drive efficiency and deliver the results that administrators crave. Let’s make 2025 the year we take healthcare workforce solutions to the next level with a new approach.