Two health systems are using digital tools and a personalized approach to retain staff

From left, Yenli Wong, associate partner McKinsey & Co., Mary Clancy, chief digital officer at Premier Health, and Albert Marinez, chief analytics officer at Intermountain Healthcare, discuss the digital role in solving workforce challenges.

Photo: Susan Morse/HFN

ORLANDO, Fla. - Personalizing what nurses want for quality-of-life and career goals, using digital tools to free up their time and giving awareness to their hard work are solutions two health systems are using to stem the Great Resignation.

Mary Clancy, chief digital officer at Premier Health, and Albert Marinez, chief analytics officer at Intermountain Healthcare, spoke at the "Executive Perspective Session: Digital's Role in Solving Workforce Challenges Today" on Monday at HIMSS22 in Orlando. Yenli Wong, associate partner McKinsey & Co., moderated.

Based on a McKinsey study, 32% of nurses indicated they are leaving their current roles in direct patient care for reasons of insufficient staffing, a too-demanding workload and higher pay elsewhere, according to Wong.

These reasons line up with what Premier has found, Clancy said. Nurses want a more flexible schedule and manageable workloads, she said.

Premier focused on retention incentives, rather than recruiting.

"We found they were doing an incredible amount of manual work, spending time in front of the computer, rather than their patients," Clancy said. "They were spending a lot of time auditing work to meet compliance."

Premier launched a pilot program recognizing the work done by nurses that's brought optimism to nurses and caregivers, she said.

The pilot is looking at how nurses spend their time and how much overtime they are working, in real time. Prior to the pilot, this information could only be found at the end of the week in looking at the work logs.

This was done using analytics tools.

Every two weeks, staff are recognized.

It's a personalized approach that asks, 'what do you want?'.

"You want to allow for career development and learning all the time," Clancy said. You want to know, "where people want to gain their next professional growth."

The Intermountain pillars are based on embedding data and enabling and engaging the workforce.

Robotic process automation is used to automate tasks. This is not being done just to reduce overhead, he said. It's a democratizing of automation and a use of advanced analytics to empower staff.

Health systems also need to be agile in getting solutions into practice. 

This concentration on solutions is contagious, empowering the whole organization, Marinez said.

Twitter: @SusanJMorse
Email the writer: SMorse@himss.org