Are We Witnessing a Great Transformation in Healthcare?

Within healthcare, hearing about someone resigning has become all too frequent. Concerns about burden on the remaining workforce takes a front seat to many conversations.

 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a record high of approximately 4.4 million people quit their jobs in September 2021, and trends are expected to continue into 2022. Healthcare has seen many caregivers, including nurses, resign for reasons such as burnout and insufficient pay.

 

As healthcare organizations grapple with recruitment and retention challenges, many are seeking to find ways to fulfill the healthcare mission and prevent burnout with the limited resources remaining.

 

A question arises: how do we sustain high quality of care amidst such a storm?

 

Lean is one of the solutions many healthcare facilities are trying to use to answer this question. With its core built on a genuine respect for people, Lean helps to make work simpler by reducing non-value-added activities, and thereby alleviating the burden on the workforce. This, of course, requires strong leadership and followership.

 

Embracing Lean, along with other creative and innovative solutions, may sustain healthcare in this era of the “Great Resignation” by humanely maximizing scarce resources and help to prevent employees and their leaders from burnout and misery.

 

What other solutions can you share through your experiences that can take us from the Great Resignation to a Great Transformation in healthcare?

2 Responses

  1. Working harder may be unavoidable, especially in the short term, but a more sustainable approach may be preferred. Caregivers may have to take on greater patient loads. How can this be accomplished without overburdening them? Respect and empowerment are powerful, but you don’t achieve empowerment and respect by simply saying, “you are empowered,” or “I respect you.” More is needed.

  2. A efficiency system based on lean concepts is an excellent step! If all health systems were to apply the system worldwide and make it standard, that may very be the Great Transformation itself!

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