Why Solving the 'Work Problem' Is a Must for CEOs

Reducing the workload on caregivers and staff needs to be the priority, says one health system leader.

CEOs across the healthcare industry are losing sleep thinking of ways to alleviate workforce challenges.

While there isn't one simple solution, AtlantiCare Health System president and CEO Michael Charlton thinks he and his peers should be focusing on one area in particular: lessening the work that is causing burnout and mass exits by workers at all levels.

"I'll acknowledge that we have a workforce problem, but I think more importantly we have a work problem," Charlton recently shared on the HealthLeaders Podcast.

Since being appointed to the helm of the New Jersey-based health system this past October, Charlton stressed that it's been all about "workforce, workforce, workforce." In his view, however, the way to attack labor shortages isn't to first and foremost think about how to add or replace workers, but to instead go to the root of the issue.

"Whether it's regulatory, whether it's finances, whether it's the headwinds healthcare faces, we have just placed more and more work on our clinical caregivers, on our administrators, on our supervisors, on our managers. And it goes on and on and on. So when people say 'how are you going to look at the workforce problem?' My first foray into this is to say, 'listen, we've got to solve the work challenge.' We have to make sure that we create an environment where our clinical caregivers, our administrators, our managers are not overburdened with their workload. At the end of the day, we have to make sure that they're healthy and happy because they have to deliver exceptional care and to do that you have to be well and to do that we have to create work-life harmony."

Unfortunately for CEOs, that amount of work in healthcare doesn't appear to be organically slowing down anytime soon. Patient volumes may no longer be what they were near the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, but as more and more workers choose to leave their organization or profession altogether, the responsibilities will continue falling on those who remain.

With leaders looking to keep costs down, simply hiring more people is no longer a plug-and-play solution. CEOs must find new answers, ones that require creativity and a willingness to invest in both people and technology.

For example, hospitals leaders are providing non-traditional benefits to keep their workers fresher and happier, according to a recent survey by Aon. That includes 93% of hospitals offering flexible work options, while 83% offer personal leave and 53% provider paid parental leave beyond state and city mandates.

Ultimately, the most effective approach to lessening the workload may lie in technology. By implementing AI and automation, CEOs can address the burden being placed on their workers through a strategy that could create cost savings down the road. An area like revenue cycle is especially ripe for investment, with tasks like prior authorization and denials management requiring time and energy that could otherwise be avoided.

It will take CEOs committing in more ways than one, but the dividends to solving the work problem could be the key to unlocking workforce sustainability in healthcare long-term.