3 Critical Areas Health Systems Fall Short With Absence Management

Let's face it: Absences cause health systems to lose money. And a lot of it. Employee absences increase the cost of care, patient waiting times, and overall quality. As noted in a recent Becker's Article, workforce issues continue to remain a top challenge for health systems post-pandemic. Unfortunately, there's no end in sight just yet.

As the industry has evolved—becoming more team-based to meet patient demand; facing fewer boundaries between clinical, administrative, and management functions—managing absences has taken on new challenges.

Workforce issues related to call-outs and/or absenteeism are typically the result of a number of factors. In this blog article, we'll examine three areas where health systems typically fall short when dealing with absences related to call-outs:

Overlooking the cost of employee absences

The most common mistake health systems make when managing absence is overlooking its impact on finances. Absence comes with a direct cost, as well as indirect costs such as increased patient wait times, decreased department productivity, and lost revenue.

Absence is a major challenge for health systems, however, the bigger problem is what happens when people return from an absence.

A recent survey by Kronos Incorporated found that 47 percent of employees who were absent for two or more weeks planned to remain away from work at least six months before returning. The study also found that 52 percent of HR managers said their organizations have trouble getting employees back after short-term absences.

Health systems have a lot riding on their employees’ ability to perform their jobs well, so it’s no surprise that they want to minimize the impact of employees being out.

In order to drive down absenteeism, health systems need to understand their data and work with their employees to identify opportunities for improvement.

Not planning for dynamic and unpredictable scheduling circumstances

Absence onboarding is about more than just filling in for employees who are out sick. It's also about helping your organization respond to the unpredictable nature of human behavior.

When it comes to employee absence, health systems are in a unique position.

They have a large workforce that is constantly shifting, with new employees coming in and old ones leaving. Additionally, the average length of time an employee will stay with a health system is less than two years.

In an interview with Tom Ross, CEO of Andgo, he stated that,

“Removing scheduling from the responsibility of nurses allows them to focus 20-25 % of their time on improving patient care. If more critical shifts can be filled by internal resources, hospitals will experience an astronomical impact on their bottom line.”

With this in mind, two key questions arise:

How do you ensure that your absence management program is effective and efficient? And how do you make sure it is cost-effective?

Relying on outdated, manual processes to staff clinical operations

Health systems often use outdated and manual processes to manage when their employees are on or off work. This leaves them without critical information about their workforce at any given time — which can lead to missed deadlines and delayed patient care.

A recent Beckers Hospital Review Podcast goes deep into how to address current workforce challenges in healthcare, specifically around absence onboarding and filling vacant shifts.

In addition, tracking absence with pen and paper leads to human error, which can result in costly mistakes like double booking appointments or scheduling patients with the wrong providers. Without real-time visibility into who's out of the office, health systems also have no way of knowing whether they're adequately staffed at all times — which could lead to unsafe conditions for patients.

Relying solely on reactive solutions like manual tracking, you're missing out on the opportunity to identify problems before they occur — which can save time and money down the road

Closing Thoughts

Health systems' accidental over reliance on the large pool of per diem clinicians is often the result of a lack of technology, as well as small management teams and complex calendars and schedules.

Failing to properly monitor and manage employee absences has a number of negative consequences, including the loss of productivity, wasted time and money, and an overall increase in workplace stress. To make matters worse, an ineffective absence management process can create an additional source of stress for employees who are already going through difficult times.

As our healthcare system continues to evolve, you can expect to find more integrated systems and efficient solutions to help reduce the impact of missed work hours, staffing shortages, and unpredictable schedules.