Persistent workforce shortages in healthcare are placing an unprecedented strain on ASC teams, amplifying stress and exhaustion across the board. Addressing burnout and figuring out ways to counter the effects of an ongoing healthcare labor shortage has become crucial for ASC leaders who aim to sustain both their teams’ well-being and the quality of patient care.
A Healthcare Shortage with No End in Sight
The statistics are alarming:
- 63% of participants in a CWH Advisors survey said they are experiencing staffing shortages in their revenue cycle departments.
- The American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) predicts a physician shortage of up to 86,000 by 2036.
- By 2033, nearly 30% of anesthesiologists are projected to exit the profession; ASCs are already facing significant anesthesiologist shortages.
Ongoing labor shortages are forcing all ASC employees to shoulder more responsibilities than ever before. Staff shortages don’t just impact clinicians; billing and reimbursement teams are stretched to the max, too. It’s no surprise that today’s ASC leaders are looking for ways to achieve greater efficiencies while creating environments that attract and retain the best talent.
Factors Contributing to ASCs’ Ongoing Labor Challenges
Workforce shortages and rising labor costs pervade the healthcare sector. Employee burnout is common for clinical caregivers and administrative teams alike. A range of factors can contribute to staffing issues at ASCs, including:
- Competition with hospitals and health systems. With their deeper pockets and greater scalability, larger healthcare entities can offer higher salaries, better benefits, and more enticing opportunities for advancement.
- A heavy influx of patients. The rate of visits to ASCs has soared as federal health insurance has expanded the scope of work ASCs can perform. While this brings added opportunities, it also increases staffing and operational demands on ASCs.
- Shortage of qualified staff. As ASCs perform more services, they must hire clinical and administrative staff with specialized skills. In many markets, these specialists are in short supply, which can overburden the team members ASCs already employ.
- Regulatory burdens. Constantly changing healthcare regulations add to the administrative strain, consuming resources as staff struggle to stay up-to-date and in compliance with essential revenue cycle mandates. The impact on billing and reimbursement for care provided is significant, often leading to revenue loss and stifled cash flow.
- High turnover. Demanding work conditions, mandated overtime, and high stress can induce burnout and fatigue, leading many to leave their jobs.
For those who remain on the job, these challenging factors can amplify stress. It can feel like a vicious cycle: Burnout leads to turnover, which leads to still more burnout, and so on.
Five Strategies to Reduce the Stress-Inducing Impact of Workforce Shortages
There’s no one fail-safe strategy for reducing stress and burnout in your ASC. That’s why it’s important to take a multipronged approach to recruiting and retaining qualified employees. A people-friendly environment is key.
Here are a handful of strategies ASCs can adopt to generate a more positive climate for employees:
- Offer Training and Development: Offer professional growth and training opportunities for your team. Employees who feel supported in their career development are less likely to experience burnout.
- Adopt Flexible Scheduling: Now more than ever, employees crave flexibility. When an ASC offers flexible working hours or shift sharing, it can reduce stress and better serve employees’ personal needs. This can improve staff retention and satisfaction.
- Promote Employee Well-Being: Create a culture that values wellness by introducing mental health support, stress management programs, and wellness incentives. Proactively addressing emotional well-being reduces the risk of burnout.
- Use Advanced RCM Technology: Many ASCs can’t afford to build and implement IA-enhanced technologies to automate systems in billing, scheduling, and supply chain management. Partnering with a tech-savvy RCM group that has state-of-the-art revenue cycle technology helps reduce errors, improves revenue capture rates, and accelerates cash flow.
- Outsource Non-Core Tasks: Work with a revenue cycle expert so your team isn’t overwhelmed with administrative tasks and can focus on what it does best: provide superior patient care. Outsourcing can help relieve overburdened staff while helping an ASC achieve optimal operational efficiency; outsourcing can often lead to better overall financial outcomes, too.
How EnableComp Can Help
EnableComp provides specialty revenue cycle management solutions for healthcare organizations, leveraging over 24 years of industry-leading expertise and its unified E360 RCM™ intelligent automation platform to improve financial sustainability for hospitals, health systems, and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) nationwide.
Powered by proprietary algorithms, iterative intelligence from 21M+ processed claims, and expert human-in-the-loop integration, EnableComp provides solutions across the revenue lifecycle for Veterans Administration, Workers’ Compensation, Motor Vehicle Accidents, and Out-of-State Medicaid claims as well as denials for all payer classes.
By partnering with clients to supercharge the reimbursement process, EnableComp removes the burden of payment from patients and provider organizations while enabling accelerated cash, higher and more accurate yield, clean AR management, reduced denials, and data-rich performance management. Contact us today to learn more about how EnableComp can help you.
