Workforce shortages will require not only an increased supply of caregivers and other personnel, but also a significant redesign of how care is provided, according to a new AHA report.
As hospitals enter a new decade, the key to maintaining an adequate workforce is redesigning work processes and introducing new technologies to increase efficiency, effectiveness and employee satisfaction; retaining current workers, including those able to retire; and attracting younger workers, says the AHA's "Workforce 2015: Strategy Trumps Shortage." Hospitals generally face low vacancies at the present time due to the effects of the economic recession. But demographic data show that serious shortages and a tight labor market overall are looming around the corner, the report observes.
To address those coming shortages, hospitals must develop new work models that enhance efficiency, workforce satisfaction and patient outcomes, says the report, adding that "proven process improvement strategies developed by firms outside of health care may expedite efforts to improve performance." The report describes how hospitals face the challenge of attracting and retaining replacements for retiring workers, while expanding its workforce to care for an aging population. Meeting those challenges requires new thinking about the workforce and new strategies about managing human resources.
The AHA's Long-Range Policy Committee developed the report. "The committee focused on changing environments changes in how we will deliver health care and in the demographics and cultural attitudes of the future workforce pool," says AHA Chairman Richard P. de Filippi, who also chaired the committee. "It will be critical for us to work with these new realities in devising strategies for best utilizing scarce human resources."
The report observes that four distinct generations comprise the nation's workforce workers born before 1946, baby boomers, "Generation Xers," and the so-called "Millenials." The report recommends that hospitals evaluate their organizational culture and assess their attractiveness to the "full diversity" of its workforce, including younger employees.
The report encourages hospitals to work with colleges and universities to update traditional degree programs to "meet the requirements of new and evolving work models." And the report says hospitals should look for managers who understand how to work with a multi-generational workforce, and replace "traditional human resources policies, which were applied uniformly to all workers, with policies and programs that include flexibility and choices."
You can find the Jan. 25 report by going to the "Issues" section of www.aha.org, and clicking on "Workforce." The report also is available at www.healthcareworkforce.org.
