The 2016 Avantas Workforce Solutions Retreat brought leading organizations including Penn State Health, KentuckyOne, Jefferson, SSM, and others to Omaha for a few days of learning, networking, and fun.
This year’s theme, Then and Now, focused on the evolution of workforce strategies and tools our clients are utilizing, as well as the transformational journeys they are all undertaking. Newer clients got to learn firsthand from long standing clients like CHI Health and Mountain States Health Alliance, and take away invaluable learning on elements ranging from Smart Square system configuration to creating buy in and leading change.
Highlights
This year’s retreat was kicked off with a keynote address from Joyce Batcheller, president of CNO Solutions, entitled The Changing Landscape in Healthcare. Joyce shared insights on the reimbursement factors that are driving change and described what is on the worry list of most senior leaders in healthcare today. She also dove into the quadruple aim and its link to the work environment including ideas to plan for future workforce needs and the most critical competencies needed to lead in the future.
The University of Kansas Hospital shared a success story on their initiative of hiring new grads into the float pool. While this strategy could be considered a bit taboo by some organizations, The University of Kansas Hospital has seen great success leveraging the role profiles of millennials while ensuring onboarding focused on elements like personal and professional growth opportunities and relationship building.
Penn State Health presented on strategies they have employed to measure and manage well-being though staffing metrics. These metrics, including vacancy rate, average daily census, core/contingency ratios, incidental worked time (early ins and late outs), and others were factored into a “Quality of Life Report Card,” providing a single source of data that is used to tell the story of how staffing is affecting the work and lives of caregivers.
Many of the presentations at this year’s retreat centered on how data and analytics can and should be used to create baselines and ongoing touch points to examine areas of concerns and gauge improvement.
Change Maker Award
Congratulations to The University of Kansas Hospital, recipients of the annual Change Maker award for the incredible results they have experienced through their unwavering commitment to improving workforce management and patient experience through their adoption of advanced tools and workforce strategies. They are an inspiration to us, and we are very proud to partner with them on their journey.
Looking Ahead
Like previous year’s retreats, the greatest value to our clients (and us) came mainly from the interactions and conversations had, the relationships that were formed or strengthened, and the overall sense of community our clients have developed both with each other and with us as their strategic labor management partner.
We are already looking forward to next year’s event and are well on our way to making sure it is the biggest and best retreat experience possible. Thank you to all our clients who took time out of their busy schedules to spend a few days with us.
Thoughts or comments? Email me at jenny.korth@avantas.com.