Transforming the culture and practices associated with 60% of your organization’s operating expense – and the faces of care your patients interact with – is not something many healthcare organizations are eager to do.
This is understandable as an endeavor of this magnitude takes time, requires heavy lifting, and necessitates a strong desire to want to change. The truth is most organizations are in need of a strategic labor optimization project but don’t have the experience to know where to start.
Here are four things your organization must do to prepare for sustainable labor transformation:
1. Select the right executive sponsor.
Without the right executive sponsor the likelihood of successfully implementing positive, sustaining change is quite low. The executive sponsor for labor management projects must possess the passion and fortitude to be able to weather the setbacks which will undoubtedly occur. He or she must be able to communicate the vision and inspire peers as well as individuals down the line and across departments to believe in the project.
2. Understand your current state.
An assessment process at the beginning of a labor management project helps all parties understand the current state across the organization and provides the initial roadmap to move toward the organization’s desired future state. By understanding where you are, what obstacles you face, what opportunities you have, as well as what resources are available and what’s needed, you will be well situated to realign resources to reach your goal.
3. Get buy-in.
This starts from day one. By getting the key contributors, influencers, and decision makers involved in the process from the start you will be much better positioned down the road when you need to leverage their support. Key to getting buy-in is developing open lines of communication. Individuals must feel like they have the opportunity to speak their minds (both with the healthcare consulting company as well as their counterparts) and provide feedback throughout the project, otherwise they will withdraw, become passive, or worse, obstacles to change. When you encounter those who resist your initiative we advise you hear them out. Giving those with conflicting opinions a venue where their concerns are heard (and responded to with examples and metrics) often leads to gaining their buy-in. It’s surprising how fast a critic can become a “raving fan” when they feel they are part of the solution.
4. Leverage an experienced partner.
Most organizations want to be able to tackle projects like this internally. After all, you’ve employed smart, talented people. And, furthermore, who understands your organization better than you? While this is true, often times a neutral party (i.e., an experienced healthcare consulting company) can be given greater latitude and credibility to effect and drive change. Additionally, the high level of experience an outside expert has with other like organizations can give them greater wherewithal to implement and drive substantial changes. However, for the relationship to work the executive champion must believe in and support their chosen partner. While the partner should have the ability to break down walls through effective communication and consensus building, the relationship will not be fruitful if they are not supported fully and publically by the executive champion.
Implementing sustainable transformational change can deliver dramatic immediate and long-term savings. We have found that the average hospital can conservatively see a 6% savings on their labor spend by implementing some of the simple strategies to capture the “low hanging fruit” identified in a labor management project. Those savings can be amplified by the implementation of further strategies and by automating your labor management plan with the correct healthcare scheduling and productivity technology.
As labor comprises 60% of your organization’s operating budget, a 6% or greater improvement is substantial, and would pay for the cost of the labor management project many times over.
To learn more about this type of engagement, and what benefits and ROI you can expect, email me at jackie.larson@avantas.com.