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| The Monthly Pulse |
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| May I Have an Extension, Please?
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| The Story |
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| Although physician shortages are expected to persist through at least the next decade due to factors such as aging and population growth, one promising solution is the use of physician extenders. Including advanced practice nurses, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants, this segment is expected to grow considerably through 2030, which could help to offset some of the labor shortages we’re seeing currently. |
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| What You Should Know |
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| As the gap between physician availability and the demand for healthcare continues to grow, healthcare systems are increasingly turning towards physician extenders as a valuable component of their clinical staff. Recruiting extenders can lead to improved patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes, thanks to factors such as increased patient volume, efficient throughput, and reduced overhead costs. While extenders can help to address shortages in virtually any healthcare space, it’s ideal for facilities to partner with a specialty firm to address their hiring and staffing needs for highly specialized teams like cardiothoracic and vascular surgery.
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| Cardiology societies want to help Congress reform Medicare |
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| The Story |
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| Roughly 100 healthcare societies, including the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), have written a letter urging Congress to include them in their Medicare payment policy reform. The letter encouraged collaboration with the community of providers and an initiation of formal proceedings that would address systemic issues affecting physicians. |
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| What You Should Know |
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| The current Medicare payment system leaves many clinicians facing considerable pay reductions, which are exacerbated by factors such as inflation and increasing practice costs. Physicians are facing a freeze which would last until 2026, followed by a payment update of just 0.25%. The societies’ letter to Congress calls for a dependable payment update system that would more effectively offset rising costs, thereby continuing uninterrupted beneficiary access to care, as well as a more streamlined Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) participation experience to reduce administrative burdens.
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| Setting Expectations with Agencies and Firms |
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| The Story |
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| Staffing firms are tasked with finding the best candidates to fill openings in healthcare, but their success depends largely on strong communication with in-house recruiters. By setting clear expectations from the start and continuing to communicate along the way, you’ll lay the foundation for a successful partnership. |
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| What You Should Know |
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| Agencies are well-versed in what it takes to get you the right candidates, but to ensure all parties involved have what they need to facilitate a smooth process, you must start by outlining your expectations. Consider discussing a date by which your organization needs a new candidate, what steps will be involved in the search processes, whether deadlines will be used, and who will take the lead through each step, including the interview process. While this approach may require a bit more effort upfront, it will help to promote a positive experience for you, your candidates, and the firm.
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| Leadership Reflections |
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Design Thinking
Recently, I participated in a Design Thinking course through Stanford Graduate School of Business. Design thinking is a user-centered way to conceive of and create a successful product, service, or process. It was a great opportunity to actively engage the process and consider the many ways it can be applied. Here are some key takeaways that may be helpful as you consider your team’s processes and service delivery: |
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- Create a customer-centric team. Ask questions about customer needs with empathy, and really listen and learn from the feedback. You can use the same process when considering how to better meet employee needs.
- Tackle problems without preconceived solutions. Feedback from your questions will generate out-of-the-box ideas that are likely better than your anticipated solutions.
- Be willing to pivot quickly. Reimagine processes and service delivery per the feedback and then circle back to your users with solutions that better meet their needs.
- Don’t forget to consider key partners. These can include patient and employee family members, other teams within the system, vendors, and so forth. Consider how to nurture these relationships in order to make your new plans a success.
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| Per the course, “It is becoming increasingly recognized that innovations that succeed follow a systematic, rigorous process of need identification, hypothesis generation, testing, learning, and iteration.” I encourage you to give it a try!
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| AAPA 2022 |
| Thurs., May 19 to Wed., May 25 |
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| National Association for Health Care Recruitment |
| Sat., July 16 - Tues., July 19 |
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| PracticeMatch Annual Recruitment Conference |
| Sun., Sept. 18 - Tues., Sept. 20 |
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