The adage “doing more with less” has become par for the course for cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED) clinics. Worker shortages and other staffing challenges have made it difficult for clinics to keep up with growing patient populations and transmission volumes.
Hiring and training additional staff members is a costly and time-consuming process. And operating with a skeleton crew can result in overworked and overwhelmed staff, and lead to low employee satisfaction and turnover.
It can be a major challenge to determine the optimal staffing structure that keeps costs manageable, while ensuring staff members are fulfilled and productive, not stressed.
When faced with this challenge, many clinics find it difficult to dedicate the necessary time and resources to solve it on their own. As a result, they often turn to third-party service providers for help. While this can be a good solution for some, clinics can also find a path to solving their long-term staffing needs on their own.
True staffing optimization starts with knowledge of where you stand—and where you can improve
Listen to your team
Opening the lines of communication with existing employees is the first step to addressing staffing challenges for any CIED clinic. Who better to consult than the people that know your clinic inside and out, and understand how it functions instinctually? Engaging your existing staff in conversations about how things can improve day-to-day can make a world of difference.
Consider scheduling a weekly lunch event with an open agenda, and encourage staff members to share their concerns and potential solutions related to staffing challenges. Set up one-on-one meetings with employees over coffee to learn their opinions on how things are running in a more private setting. Even placing an anonymous suggestion box in the office can yield valuable insights. The key is to make your staff feel comfortable sharing their opinions and understand that their voices are heard.
Learn from your peers
Peer clinics can be a wealth of information on staffing structure. Talk to other CIED clinics of similar size and structure to yours. What solutions have worked for them? What challenges do they still have to solve? What systems and processes have they implemented?
A commitment to continuous improvement, combined with listening to staff members and key stakeholders, will form the foundation of your clinic’s approach to alleviating concerns around staffing.
Practical approaches to CIED staffing optimization
After consulting your staff and other stakeholders, as well as peer clinics, consider the following strategies for optimizing your clinic’s staffing structure.
Define roles and responsibilities
Outlining the scope of each role in the CIED clinic is essential to running more efficiently. Clearly define what falls under the purview of each role in your clinic, and ensure employees stick to their main duties and responsibilities.
If you’re worried about employees falling into a rut when confined to a specific role, consider implementing a program where employees rotate roles on a scheduled basis. This prevents work from getting dull, and employees gain experience in multiple aspects of the clinic—meaning they’re better prepared to fill in gaps in the event of a staffing shortage.
Create an administrative position and advocate for automation
Administrative duties shouldn’t get in the way of patient care. Consider centralizing these tasks—like billing, scheduling, and enrolling patients in remote monitoring—by creating a dedicated administrative position or department. This allows your clinical team to prioritize patient care, not paperwork.
And when the opportunity for automation presents itself, embrace it. EHR integration for DFT billing, automated interval tracking, and intelligent advisory management can dramatically reduce the admin burden, and in turn improve staff retention.
Explore work from home arrangements
Remote work became a necessity during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and now it’s a fixture in many professional environments. So why not the CIED clinic? With the right tools, you can monitor patients from a distance and allow staff to work from home. This can help you retain your best talent, as remote work offers greater flexibility and eliminates time-consuming commutes.
It can also help mitigate the ongoing staffing shortages that continue to challenge the healthcare industry, with a projected 10 percent shortage of registered nurses (RNs) by 2027. When team members can work from home while recovering from a minor illness, they avoid exposing coworkers and help the clinic maintain a full schedule.
Our RN never would have been able to work from home before Murj. This may sound dramatic, but Murj may actually be saving a life.
Joshua Lader MD
STAMFORD HOSPITAL CARDIAC CLINIC
How Murj® can help
At Murj, we know CIED clinics have a lot of moving parts. Murj delivers the tools and support you need to run a modern clinic, no matter what challenges you’re facing. With our cloud-based platform, your team gets a secure, intuitive solution that simplifies workflows and can be accessed from anywhere.
Ultimately, our goal is to empower your clinic to operate independently, but we know that looks different for everyone. Murj is here to support you in the way that makes the most sense for your team—that’s why we offer a slate of clinical staffing services offerings.
Whether you need short-term help to get rid of a backlog or prefer a longer-term collaboration with our staff, we’ll tailor our services to your needs and make sure you’re getting the support you need.
I have never been so excited to look at my workflow. There’s no more paperwork and communication pertinent to the patient is all on one page. The time I’m saving from reviewing repetitive transmissions is incredible because now I can use that time to focus on more important tasks.
Carla Lopez
Device Clinic LVN
THE HEART INSTITUTE OF EAST TEXAS
Staffing challenges are not a foregone conclusion
Burdened by large amounts of device data and the day-to-day tasks of coordinating billing and payments, clinics often find it challenging to allot the necessary time and resources to improve processes and streamline workflows. This only compounds staffing issues, and can lead to exhausted employees, and negatively impacts reimbursement capture and patient care.
By taking an active role in optimizing your clinic’s staffing structure, implementing cutting-edge technology to streamline workflows, and partnering with vendors that can efficiently supplement your staff, you can ensure your clinic runs like a well-oiled machine, no matter what staffing challenges you face.
Interested in learning more about how Murj can help your clinic deal with staffing challenges? Connect with us today.
