For health care leaders, now is the time to go back over what we’ve learned over the past two years and put those lessons in too much of a hurry.
Editor’s note: Dan Woods is the CEO of El Camino Health.
With the Omicron variant of COVID-19 still spreading rapidly across the country, healthcare organizations continue to fight pandemic challenges very well. Burnout and labor shortages are now exaggerated because records of the number of workers must call sick, while emergency rooms and ICUs are increasingly busy. For health care leaders, now is the time to go back over what we’ve learned over the past two years and put those lessons in too much of a hurry.
For the leadership team at El Camino Health, Pandemic is a challenging but important resilience masterclass focused on better communication, stronger reliance on technology and a creative approach to community partnership. Our lessons learned can be applied to create stronger organizations that can withstand the hardships and shift of staff resources without allowing patient care and services to suffer. As we face the latest variant, here are a few things to consider:
Photo credit: Dan Woods is the CEO of El Camino Health. Photo courtesy of El Camino Health.
Improve communication between leadership and those on the frontline
Health care leaders knew in the early stages of the pandemic that staffing would be an ongoing problem, but that has never been more apparent than during the Omicron surge. Effective management of this issue means simplifying and speeding up the process of communicating needs and solutions between leadership teams and frontline workers.
For example, at El Camino Health, we use a day-to-day reporting system that allows employees to instantly update their managers when they are sick and unable to work. When Omicron numbers started to rise, our watch on that reporting system intensified. Our leaders maintain a consistently open line of communication with each team to assess where help is needed more urgently. We turn to creative problem solving to ensure successful day-to-day operations, such as moving personnel immediately to different floors where more support is critical.
In addition to better communication with frontline staff, consider pushing your organization’s decision-making process closer to the frontlines. A more distributed decision-making model allows you to be aware of issues that need to be addressed immediately and will result in more practical ideas being presented.
Use technology to the fullest
Tech platforms like Epic, Workday and ServiceNow are now common in healthcare settings, but few are used to their full potential. These platforms offer time-saving features that can continue the work of busy staff members, if properly implemented.
At El Camino Health, we use a fairly common health information system called Epic. But unlike many other organizations, we have made it a priority to use every value that this system can provide. The Epic bed management feature is an example that has been critical in our navigation of the Omicron surge. Our Capacity Command Center allows us to remotely manage bed availability using data delivered in real time to assist with prioritization and planning for employees and patients. We are able to make important adjustments as care needs change throughout the day. Your team will appreciate your time spent improving and expanding tools such as digital health charts and tracking systems, helping them streamline their work and respond to urgent needs more. fast.
Newer, less common technologies can also have huge payoffs. More and more hospitals are using advanced technologies such as “Tug” robots for routine tasks. This approach not only alleviates staff shortage problems, but also helps create more job enrichment and ultimately drives retention.
In today’s world, technology offers countless ways to keep you agile — make sure you take full advantage of the platforms you’re investing in.
Find creative community partnerships
When there are many barriers to conducting your typical business operations, look beyond the four walls of your facility and toward your community for answers.
Our organization seeks guidance from 129ika Rescue Wing of the California Air National Guard in early 2020. These leaders were trained in handling long -term crisis situations and taught us that our power depends on being proactive rather than reactive. In addition to our emergency operations center, they advised us to create a separate “central command” center to lead day-to-day pandemic operations, as well as another team dedicated solely in hopes to expect what may be next. As emergency and central command teams help us manage the current Omicron surge, the latter team has an eye on what we should prepare for in the next phase of the pandemic.
Healthcare workers were tired of the world created by COVID-19 before Omicron hit. Today, these frontline teams need our quick thinking, our creativity and our dedication to innovation to help them navigate the current wave — and every wave that may come after.
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