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Combatting Burnout: How Connected Care Transforms the Healthcare Workforce

How virtual care enhances staff well-being and extends clinicians' reach

Burnout, safety concerns, mental health stressors and low satisfaction make it very difficult to maintain a consistent level of high-quality care across a large hospital and health system. Connected care offers solutions to these challenges by leveraging virtual solutions to extend the reach of high-performing clinicians, enable patient triage, increase patient-to-provider ratios and overcome staffing shortages. It's critical that healthcare systems consider virtual innovation to help overcome significant challenges and improve the patient and provider experience.

“We’re seeing our more mature nursing staff take a step back from the bedside and join our virtual ICU program. We’re keeping that experience and helping to train the next generation of nursing staff.”

Teladoc Health client

91% increase in provider satisfaction levels1

A 30-bed observation unit returned an average of 5.5 hours per day to its bedside nursing staff by integrating virtual nurses2

73% reduction in turnover rates for registered nurses on the virtual unit, and a 55% reduction in turnover rates for all employees on the virtual unit for one client3

Planning for an integrated workforce

Connected care is not just a technology implementation, it is also a clinical implementation. Clinician buy-in is crucial for a successful integration. Yet, only 39% of chief medical information officers believe their organization secures sufficient clinician buy-in before implementing a new technology.4 Workflows need to be standardized for ease of use and efficiencies that scale. The technologies should require EHR integration and consider legal, regulatory, security and privacy concerns. Most importantly, planning requires the change management strategies that can shift the culture to accept innovation.

Tips for a successful workforce change management:

  • Include clinicians early in the planning and decision process
  • Consolidate point solutions to mitigate solution fatigue
  • Promote the features that benefit your employees
  • Make continual learning and support a cultural value

Questions to ask:

  1. How can you grow in an asset-light way so that you don’t need to own bricks and mortar or hire new staff to expand to a new market or use case?
  2. What would be the economic impact of increasing speed to care by 600%?5
  3. Could remote work options increase employee retention?
  4. Does this open up virtual support from disabled or aging staff who can’t sustain a long physical workday?
  5. What would be the economic impact of increasing your nurse-to-patient ratios while still maintaining the same levels of quality and patient satisfaction?
  6. How open is your staff to using virtual technology?

What change management support do you need to evolve?

Ready to learn more?

1Teladoc Health client data
2Teladoc Health client data
3Teladoc Health client data
4The Health Management Academy. The Future of Integrated Virtual Care: Closing the Gap to Goal.
5Teladoc Health. Published 2016. How to decide if you should build or buy your Telehealth Solution.

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