Optimizing Emergency Room Staffing: Finding The Right Fit For Your Hospital
Getting emergency room operations right for patients, for physicians and for administrators is among the most difficult tasks in healthcare. While there are benefits to bringing in a private equity-backed firm or a physician partnership to staff an ER, each avenue also has its drawbacks. And more often than not, the downsides tend to manifest quickly once cultures begin to clash.
TECHealth is different. With years of experience staffing and operating ERs, it focuses foremost on developing strong cultures within the emergency departments it oversees to align the needs of physicians and hospital leadership. This alignment is key to delivering exceptional outcomes—for patients and for healthcare organizations.
The Importance Of Value Alignment In Emergency Room Staffing
“We’re unique in the sense that we’re a values-based organization, and our model is designed to attract folks who share those values and operate off those values,” explains Keith Butler, MD, CEO of TECHealth.
Of course, Dr. Butler realizes that many organizations talk a lot about their values or culture and its importance. But after decades of working with emergency rooms, he recognizes that it’s the most essential element in creating a successful long-term model for both TECHealth and its clients.
And because TECHealth is not backed by private equity, there’s not pressure to work with just any organization who might have a need or hire anyone with an MD or a DO and a board certification.
“We want to work with customers who resonate with our values, so if we don’t have a good fit there, then we’re really not going to work well.” Dr. Butler says.
Core Values That Guide TECHealth’s ER Staffing Strategy
- Accountability
- Do something good
- Empathy
- Zeal
Chief Operations Officer Eric Wilke, MD, echoes that sentiment, underscoring the importance of values alignment when hiring physicians. “A lot of people are desperate for a warm body, but we’ve taken a different approach. We really try to make decisions on our values, and holding firm to that as much as we can has actually made staffing a little easier.”
While this may seem counter intuitive (especially given physician and clinician shortages), there are a few reasons staying values-focused when staffing has made it a little simpler:
- Physicians are the best recruiters of other physicians, so satisfied TECHealth physicians are more likely to tell peers who align with TECHealth’s values.
- Avoiding bringing on difficult individuals creates a better culture and makes a more attractive place to work for everyone else.
- When things get hard—which they invariably do in any emergency room—physicians and other staff are more likely to stay and push through it as a team, as evidenced by TECHealth’s low turnover rate.
Having a team that starts out aligned because of values and then serving clients with similar values helps create a cultural fit that leads to measurable successes on ER and hospital KPIs. Additionally, it creates the trust necessary to overcome the many challenges ERs may face at any given time.
Balancing Expectations: TECHealth’s Approach To ER Staffing
Having worked on both the physician side and holding administrative-type roles in emergency rooms gives the TECHealth leadership team a unique, well-rounded perspective. By working with hospitals and hospital systems that share our values, we work collectively to create a emergency department that physicians, hospital administrators and the community can be proud, focusing on transparency and a potential relationship that could be mutually beneficial.
“We try to be as transparent as we can be,” says Dr. Wilke. “If we have an area of strength, we’ll tell you. If we have a weakness, we’ll tell you. It really needs to be a very good fit because–as with any relationship–there’s going to be triumphs and there’s going to be some bumps. So we want to be able to weather the bumps and celebrate the successes as a team with our hospital partners.”
Discover If TECHealth Is The Right Staffing Solution For Your Emergency Room
To learn more about the TECHealth approach and how its values might align with yours to create a better ER experience, find us online at tec.health. Contact us!
