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Staffing
care department at one of Jefferson
Health's main academic medical centers.
" In the healthcare environment
that we work in right now, that's unheard
of, quite frankly, " he says.
As of now, the internal SEAL staff
does not specifically cover patients in
the OR suite. " At this time we don't
have SEAL nurses deployed within surgical
services or procedural areas, but
that is certainly an opportunity that
we've identified as potential future
growth for the program, " says Thum.
Mini SEAL program focuses on
the OR
On a smaller scale, this is already taking
place. Jefferson Health New Jersey
is piloting the SEAL approach with at
least 10 full-time " resource nurses, "
says Elaine Joyce, DNP, its assistant
vice president of surgical services. The
nurses have duties similar to the SEAL
nurses, but they are only deployed at
the New Jersey campuses currently,
working at three hospitals and in a surgery
center.
This encompasses the OR, preoperative,
and PACU areas, says Joyce. The
nurses go to whatever campus or facility
needs them on a given day. The eventual
goal is to create a dedicated SEAL
program for surgical and perioperative
services.
The " familiar face " concept that Hudson
described specifically applies to the
OR suite, Joyce emphasizes. Surgeons
are usually particular about whom they
work with, and an agency nurse may not
have the desired skill set of a certified
scrub tech or an OR nurse.
Creating a SEAL perioperative program
would be a big win for Jefferson
Health, says Joyce. It would mean the
health system would be able to send
a cardiac nurse from one region to another
to assist with open-heart surgery,
with the confidence that this nurse was
a known quantity that had the right skill
set to safely do the job. " We've started
a bit of that on a small scale in New
22
OR Manager | Nov/Dec 2023
Jersey, but we're hoping to be able to
expand that, " she says.
Working with a technology
partner
In yet another approach, some hospitals
and health systems are signing on with
external strategic workforce partners
to help them fill staffing gaps and save
money, notes Ahrens, whose organization,
the Center for Health Workforce
Innovation and Technology, is dedicated
to sharing and advancing healthcare
workforce innovation and technology.
An example of what Ahrens describes
is ShiftMed, in McLean, Virginia, which
helps facilities build their own branded
infrastructure by partnering with technology-driven
staffing agencies.
These partners can integrate with the
hospitals' existing staffing software to
help them identify staffing gaps and fill
them with a local supply of on-demand
workers, says Ahrens. " Not only does
this address staffing holes, but it also
takes the work off facilities to source
these workers. These partners work directly
with hospital executive teams and
HR to streamline the transition to ondemand
labor. "
Unlike most traditional external staffing
agencies, ShiftMed offers a pool of
pre-vetted healthcare workers, " enabling
facilities to fill open shifts easily and
quickly, " says Todd Walrath, MBA, ShiftMed's
founder and CEO. It can also be
more efficient in providing immediate
access to qualified professionals than
an internal travel team, he adds. " Our
innovative approach to workforce management
and on-demand labor helps to
streamline the staffing process, ensuring
efficient and cost-effective solutions
for healthcare organizations, " Walrath
says.
Nurses can choose where and when
they want to pick up shifts and decide
how many hours per week they want to
work. They can do one or two shifts a
week or utilize these platforms to fill out
a 40-hour week work schedule.
Many of these platforms offer unique
benefits to nurses like same-day pay,
flexible hours, and transportation integrations
with UberHealth, Uber's healthcare
arm, says Ahrens. Nurses can use
an app to request a ride to and from
their shift, for instance.
Choose leaders wisely
Having the right leadership structure
to support an internal staffing venue,
as well as the costs associated with
the right software technology partner, is
something that needs to be considered
up front, says Hudson.
Jefferson Health was fortunate to
have these building blocks before the
startup of its internal agency, says
Hudson. " We already had in place software
across our entire health system
that helps us have the information we
need to be able to move these nurses
around, " he says. But they also had to
hire a leader to help them roll out the
program.
What the stakeholders at the health
system level do not want to do is to
just give this crucial job to a leader who
cannot handle the multiple demands
that come with establishing an internal
agency, advises Hudson. " Luckily, Andrew
Thum was up for the challenge, "
he concludes. ORM
-Jennifer Lubell is a freelance medical
and health policy writer based in
Rockville, Maryland.
References
Mangia K. Craig Ahrens on how we
need to adjust to the future of work.
Thrive Global. July 29, 2022.
ShiftMed Team. Removing transportation
barriers: ShiftMed partners with
Uber Health to get nurses to work.
ShiftMed. December 12, 2022.
The Current State of Hospital Finances.
Kaufman, Hall & Associates,
LLC, requested by the American
Hospital Association. Fall 2022
Update.
www.ormanager.com
https://www.shiftmed.com/blog/removing-transportation-barriers-shiftmed-partners-with-uber-health/ https://www.kaufmanhall.com/sites/default/files/2022-09/KH-Hospital_Finances_Report-Fall2022.pdf http://www.ormanager.com
orm_november-2023

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