With the battle against COVID-19 taking many forms across the nation, the struggle has been felt widely and acutely. As hospitals begin their path towards reopening electives and expanding care, we have asked our clients across the nation about the struggles they are facing and how they are adapting.
Dealing with Staff Shortages and Furloughs
Despite a clear and urgent need for medical staff in high-impact areas, significant portions of the country have seen consistently low census due to cancelled electives, leading to furloughs, layoffs and rotating staff coverage. Hospitals nationwide are reporting UR staff furloughs as they await the reopening of electives in the coming weeks and months. These furloughs and minimizations can consist of asking staff to take paid time away, mandating unpaid time away, requesting volunteers for furlough, or staff rotations in which staff work in shifts to take every other week (or other time period off) as well as shift splits.
These shortages and furloughs take a significant toll on families and the staff affected as well as leaders who are trying to cover, cope, and manage as long as they have to.
Reopening Electives & Regaining Momentum
As elective surgeries are the lifeline for most hospitals, safely and quickly reopening for business has become high priority: several hospitals we’ve spoken to plan to do surgeries up to six days a week to catch up or plan to otherwise scale the care they provide as their states reopen and as they bring staff back on.
One surprising insight was the new relevance of marketing efforts in two lanes: to ensure patients knew how the hospital planned to care for them specifically (this marketing often comes in the form of emails, texts and 1:1 outreach) as well as marketing and advertising dollars to build trust from community to reengage with their care (this marketing spanned billboards, radio ads, flyers, emails and more).
As you and your organizations continue to combat this virus, the team at Xsolis as well as families and communities across the nation thank you.