Leading Beyond Recovery Towards a Resilient Healthcare Facility

April 18, 2023

The COVID-19 pandemic has had societal and economic consequences on healthcare facilities nationwide. Some of those consequences include a high death toll, reduced life expectancy among individuals, and long-lasting health impacts. It has been a few years since the pandemic put healthcare systems under extreme stress, and now leaders are looking toward the future of their healthcare facilities. Healthcare leaders have had to adapt to changing circumstances and are now finding ways to repair their healthcare systems and continue delivering high-quality healthcare. There are future challenges that healthcare leaders are dealing with when trying to create a resilient healthcare facility.

Impact of COVID-19 on Healthcare Facility

There has been a multitude of challenges healthcare facilities have faced because of COVID-19. The ongoing nurse shortage has had significant implications on healthcare facilities. There has been immense pressure on nurses as they have had to care for multiple patients simultaneously while also training new nursing staff. Below are the top ways COVID-19 has impacted healthcare professionals:

• Excessive turnover rates
• Overwhelming burnout
• Frequent patient influx
• The growing population of older adults
• Early retirement
• Lack of nurse educators

There have been physical and mental strains on healthcare staff because of the pandemic. The overwhelming stress placed on healthcare professionals is resulting in severe consequences for healthcare facilities. Healthcare facilities are now in recovery mode, discovering new strategies to repair their hospitals and looking to the future with their healthcare professionals.

Tips for Creating a Resilient Healthcare Facility

COVID-19 highlighted hospitals and healthcare professionals' significant role in their communities when recovering from the pandemic. Healthcare executives are now seeking strategies and tips to move their healthcare facilities toward recovery.

Use existing resources and personnel to your advantage. Healthcare executives should look to and lean on individuals with tenure at the facility and ask them where the problems exist. Depending on existing resources will allow facilities to improve on what they already have. COVID-19 taught a lot of healthcare facilities that they need a plan in place in case any other pandemic occurs, as many facilities were not prepared for the impact of COVID-19. Healthcare executives should have a plan ready for any other major epidemic that impacts healthcare facilities and their nursing staff. Healthcare leaders must focus and learn more about workforce challenges and see how COVID-19 has exacerbated these challenges.

Healthcare executives need to advocate for reasonable work hours, staffing patterns, wages, and benefits for all their healthcare professionals. To create a resilient healthcare facility, a plan must be implemented to benefit all employees and executives. This includes optimizing workforce development programs that support diversity and inclusivity in the workplace. Healthcare executives can also work with outside staffing agencies such as Avant Healthcare Professionals to aid their nursing staff by hiring international nurses. International nurses support the development of a diverse workplace, which will only strengthen the healthcare unit. Leaders should also put more effort into the staff they already have. They can provide additional training in graduate and continuing education programs for their staff. This will increase the quality-of-care healthcare professionals can provide for their patients and reduce burnout as nursing staff will feel like they are moving forward in their careers.

Challenges Against a Resilient Healthcare Facility

Hospitals are the backbone of healthcare. Patients want to know they can trust their healthcare facility to be resilient during medical uncertainty such as COVID-19. Strengthening the resilience of a healthcare facility will only benefit the hospitals and their staff in the long run. While there are many steps when working towards a resilient facility, there are challenges with making these necessary changes to healthcare facilities.

As staffing shortages begin to soar, many other challenges hinder healthcare facilities' ability to improve. Recruiting and retaining employees, especially healthcare professionals, has proven to be one of the biggest challenges. According to an annual American College of Healthcare Executives survey, staff shortages were U.S. hospital CEOs' top concern in 2021. Financial challenges were second on the list. This is due to the high wage rates and benefits hospitals had to pay to maintain an adequate staffing level at their facility.

The advancement of medical technologies causes many hospitals to fall behind in their teaching and growth as a facility. Recent breakthroughs in medical technologies are happening at unprecedented rates, causing both tenured and new nurses to fall behind in learning new practices and operating new equipment. These innovations are outpacing hospitals, making them unable to keep up.

The Bottom Line

Although COVID-19 has presented challenges to healthcare leaders across the country, it has also allowed many leaders to rise to the occasion and put their leadership skills to the test. Healthcare leaders need to be more resilient than ever, especially as many nurses have left their positions and have limited resources to replace them. Leaders will need to guide at all levels to recover from the impact of COVID-19 fully. Finding strategies to create a facility to maintain operation during a pandemic is critical for healthcare leaders. By creating a resilient facility, healthcare executives will foster an environment of trust and care among their staff.