Healthcare has its struggles, as the industry juggles what’s right for patients with process and data efficiency. As we continue to navigate the year, several crucial healthcare workforce challenges stand out:
Are workers overloaded?
Can labor keep your wheels turning?
Is technology helping the team?
These questions may not be new, but they continue to demand our attention in an ever-changing industry landscape. Take a closer look at the top healthcare workforce challenges today and how your organization can begin to turn the page for a brighter future.
BURNOUT AND EMPLOYEE WELL-BEING
Healthcare professionals work long hours, staying on their toes to deal with fast-paced and emotionally draining situations. It’s no wonder burnout rears its ugly head as one of the most pressing healthcare workforce challenges. Between navigating difficult situations and relying on inefficient electronic health records (EHRs) that aren’t user-friendly, workers end up with more tasks to complete. The resulting burnout impacts patient care quality and retention—leading 95 percent of nurses to feel burned out and causing staff shortages.
So how can you fix it? Consider where your EHR falls short and prioritize personalization to meet your organization’s specific needs. With an EHR built for you, teams and technology can work in lockstep, alleviating:
- Documentation burden
- Electronic messaging overload
- Cognitive fatigue
- Time demands
SHORTAGE OF HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS
Hospitals and healthcare organizations are in the same boat as many other industries, with labor shortages of up to hundreds of thousands of workers putting a crunch on the workforce. The real sting is that these shortages impact all roles in care delivery, including home health aides, nurses, and physicians.
Part of the problem is that baby boomers are on their way to retirement, adding to the many healthcare workforce challenges to monitor. As these workers retire, they create gaps in specialized roles, leaving a population that’s aging just as fast scrambling for quality care.
Today’s healthcare staffers are left to do more with less, and it’s exhausting. Between having more patients to see and more administrative work, care quality and patient satisfaction are in jeopardy, impacting recruitment and retention.
TECHNOLOGICAL ADAPTABILITY
Adaptability is one of the most common healthcare workforce challenges due to the rapid rise of healthcare technology. This tech can assist with care and administration, between trends such as AI to improve wait times and personalized EHRs. But how do you differentiate what could be helpful from what you’re actually ready for?
Think about how tools can be tailored to your organization’s needs. It’s easy to stick with the “old way” of doing things if staff are resistant to change and learning curves. And if your current technological infrastructure lacks interoperability with new technology, switching might require creative workarounds. But if personalization can provide exactly what you need, updates to systems such as your EHR software can elevate efficiency and patient experiences.
All this considered, it’s important not to let cybersecurity take a backseat. An unsecure EHR can invite intruders to take control of or tamper with your data through malware, ransomware, phishing, and more. Improve EHR safety with a few best practices:
- Use multifactor authentication to log in.
- Regularly install security patches for up-to-date protection.
- Use passwords with special characters and update frequently.
- Log out of the EHR after each use.
OVERCOME ANY CHALLENGE WITH EHR PERSONALIZATION
As we look to the future, the ability to overcome healthcare workforce challenges will shape staff efficiency and care quality. Juno EHR provides a roadmap to get in front of your most daunting challenges and drive improvements in morale, flexibility, and patient care.
Our personalization capabilities empower you to optimize workflows for your unique needs to reduce overtime hours, improve patient-doctor interactions, and relieve burnout. Here are just a few key features you don’t want to miss:
- Clinical Content Builder lets you create and edit personalized note templates, flowsheets, and modules in a no-code/low-code interface.
- Build-a-Module enables you to create personalized modules, no matter your department or specialty.
- System-wide personalization tools allow you to take control of your EHR experience.
Open the door to better patient care and improved staff morale. Lean on Juno Health to elevate EHR personalization and streamline daily processes.
