As we head into 2022, we asked the Healthcare IT Today community to share some predictions for the new year. I always find it interesting to learn what people think is coming down the road. Be sure to check out all our Health IT Predictions.
One of the surprise topics for me heading into 2022 goes to staffing. Employment in healthcare is facing the biggest challenges it has ever faced. This is largely true across every type of healthcare employment. Nurses and doctors are burnt out. Health IT staff now can work remotely which creates lots of outside pressures. Plus, demand for highly skilled health IT professionals is at an all time high. This and much more is reflected in the predictions below.
Here’s a look at some of the 2022 healthcare employment and Great Resignation predictions we received:
Zack Tisch, Vice President, Client Solutions at Pivot Point Consulting
The impact of the Great Resignation on healthcare is widespread and still being understood. Health IT leaders will need to accommodate changing needs and the labor market. We project a shift to outcomes-based staffing for health IT, larger geographical talent pools for recruiting, as well as widespread labor arbitrage.
Rachel Sokol, Head of Healthcare Research at Olive
Rachel Sokol analyses Olive’s data to share insights with the healthcare community. After nearly 2 years of distrust in leadership and crushing working conditions, healthcare workers are fed up. 18% of healthcare workers have quit since February 2020 making the remaining staff crucial to retain. But several high-profile nurses’ strikes provide a stark warning of what can happen if the executive team doesn’t support its workers.
Workers’ unsustainable workloads are due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated stress, but also to already existing administrative work. Efforts to digitize healthcare have meant that workers spend increasing amounts of time entering data into multiple systems and not enough time caring for individuals. The Internet of Healthcare Report found that 50% of staff are entering more data manually than they were last year. Executives know this but have thus far felt overwhelmed at the prospect of change.
Workers want automation. They know the time it can save them (69 minutes per day on average) can be redirected to patient care. So if executives don’t follow through on their ambitions to create an automated workplace that allows for more time to practice medicine, workers will revolt.
And one of the things they’ll demand is more automation. Because they know it can save them time and provide a working environment free from mundane tasks. It can improve safety and increase provider-patient interaction. In 2022, automation will be demanded as part of collective bargaining for the positive impact it can have on workers’ (and patients’) experiences..
Jason Krantz, CEO at Definitive Healthcare
As the Omicron variant causes COVID-19 cases to surge, it will put added pressure on an already strained healthcare system in 2022. Hospitals and health systems are facing unprecedented staffing shortages due to various factors, including burnout, illness, an aging workforce, and vaccine mandates. Healthcare is also not exempt from the Great Resignation as workers continue to re-evaluate what they want from employers.
Our data showed roughly 131,00 physicians dropped out of the workforce post-Q3 2020, while only 60,000 new providers joined. Front-line staff such as nurses were hit the hardest with over 20,000 leaving the workforce, while only 12,500 were added in the same period.
Healthcare organizations need to evaluate their staffing and recruiting strategies and incorporate new forms of healthcare commercial intelligence to better identify what providers face burnout and develop smarter recruiting practices.
Muthu Alagappan, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Notable
The labor shortage will get worse in healthcare: Healthcare talent will increasingly be drawn elsewhere away from typical healthcare settings to growing areas of the healthcare industry, like urgent care centers and digital health providers, as health systems remain resistant to increasing wages.
2022 will see a larger shift towards home-based healthcare: Starting with more forms of inpatient care and home visits becoming home-based, to eventually urgent care and preventative care. There are many aspects of brick-and-mortar healthcare practices that can be moved towards home-based care with the assistance of technology.
Mark Woodka, CEO at OnShift
#1: With an aging population and less family caregivers to attend to them, despite growing calls to shift to home care–even with telehealth–we’ll see a rebound in occupancy for senior living and similar communities that can provide specialty care and services. Following two years of a pandemic, this will be a test for the industry, but one they can overcome with the right strategies, people, and technology in place.
#2: Less workers want the 9-5 workday. In fact, an OnShift survey found that 25% cited flexible work schedules as a top perk. In order to survive, it’s time to embrace the gig economy and its flexibility, plus non-traditional employees like retirees, high school and college students. Organizations that do so will see greater recruiting power and retention.
# 3: In order to compete with big retailers and their flashy perks, smaller organizations will take different approaches to attracting talent and improving the employee experience. We’ll see more mentoring and leadership training, employee recognition and rewards (beyond a pizza party), flexible pay models, and recruiting alongside marketing. These efforts really resonate with employees; as our research found, 29% of workers say a rewards and recognition program is the most valuable perk an employer can offer. Additionally, EAPs (employee assistance programs) or rainy-day funds and how employees can access them have been shown to be an easy and attractive offering. In fact, with OnShift Wallet, which helps ease the stress of living paycheck to paycheck with instant access to wages, employees accessed nearly $60.2 million in early wages in 2021, while also avoiding late fees or high-interest payday loans to cover bills or unplanned expenses.
David Coppins, CEO at IntelyCare
Gig work will crossover into the nursing profession. The gig economy has thrived on the backs of workers who value flexibility over the stable confines of traditional employment. Staffing agencies who are placing talent will need technology to properly balance flexibility with stability to enable nurses to pick up single shifts or build schedules weeks in advance, while ensuring they maintain effective market liquidity for supply and demand.
If you have other predictions you’d like to share, do so in the comments so we can all learn from each other.
