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Our partner 4sight Health compiled an <a href="https://a.storyblok.com/f/98928/x/39a29a250c/htlh2021_4sightreport_v01.pdf" target="_blank">executive summary</a> of our HLTH 2021 conference, detailing how we returned with gusto to in-person programming following a two-year hiatus with only virtual events and delivered, as always, by staying true to our mission of community, connection and engagement.  HLTH was officially back! Despite extensive COVID safety precautions offered to ensure everyone’s safety, much of the HLTH 2021 experience remained unchanged. We created a unique, action-oriented “marketplace” that advanced dialogue, confronted hard truths and explored solutions to healthcare’s most pressing issues. Everything was still BIG! <ul><li>Attendance was massive with 6,500+ in-person attendees</li><li>Content was rich and sprawling, consisting of 300+ speakers</li><li>Technology remained unmatched</li><li>Entertainment was world-class, featuring famous singer Michelle Williams from the hit R&amp;B girl group Destiny’s Child</li><li>The exhibit floor was enormous, spanning 600+ sponsors and exhibitors</li><li>Networking was nonstop</li></ul> <a href="https://a.storyblok.com/f/98928/x/39a29a250c/htlh2021_4sightreport_v01.pdf" target="_blank">Read and download the full report here</a>.

HLTH 2021 Executive Summary

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Executive Vice President, Advisory Solutions

Staffing is a critical component of ensuring quality patient care. For the past two years, hospital CEOs have ranked workforce challenges as their top concern. One of their most pressing issues lies in the realm of labor costs, which is the largest category of spend for hospitals. This financial burden has reached critical levels, significantly straining hospital finances. As healthcare leaders balance the care and cost conundrum, the power of predictive analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) emerges as a transformative force to help optimize costs and labor utilization. Taking the guesswork out of workforce and capacity planning Traditionally, the number of nursing resources needed is based on the number of beds or the average census. It’s a little more than just guessing as it doesn’t factor emerging needs, productivity timelines for workers such as new graduates, contractors, international workers and other variables. This guesswork approach can result in several challenges:<ul><li>Understaffing: Without accurate volume predictions, healthcare facilities may find themselves understaffed during peak demand periods, jeopardizing patient care and staff morale.</li><li>Overstaffing: Overestimating staffing can lead to unnecessary labor costs, and sending workers home regularly can affect the financial health of the providers.</li><li>Mismatched staffing: Failing to match appropriate healthcare professionals&#39; skills and competencies with patient needs can compromise the quality of care and patient safety.</li><li>Burnout: When staffing is inconsistent and unpredictable, healthcare professionals may face burnout, impacting both their well-being and the quality of care they provide.</li></ul> Harnessing the power of predictive analytics and AI incorporates the analysis of thousands of data points from historical hospital census data, weather patterns, the health status of the service area and a hospital’s existing EMR for patient acuity and diagnoses. Hospitals can utilize this data to predict patient volumes more precisely with more than 90% accuracy to build future demand-driven labor budgets and develop hiring plans from 12-18 months out.  Taking the guesswork out of scheduling While many advanced enterprise scheduling systems exist, no solution shows the complete staffing schedule (including internal and external contingent resources), department activity (including census) and ADT. Advanced algorithms can provide guidance to create an optimal schedule based on precision forecasting with alerts for high/low census or under/overstaffing, such as with Aya Healthcare’s workforce AI.  AI-generated staffing can create ideal schedules in three easy steps: <ol><li>Predict Future Patient Volume: Intelligently predict the number of physicians and nurses needed to meet future patient demand.</li><li>Distribute Resources: Improve efficiencies by scheduling existing provider resources where appropriate rather than relying upon contract labor. </li><li>Optimize Schedules: Achieve an optimal schedule that balances provider preference, organizational policy and regulatory constraints.</li></ol>AI-generated staffing models with hour-by-hour volume predictions represent a transformative approach to healthcare workforce management. Across multiple metrics, Aya’s Workforce AI-generated staffing models outperformed manually generated schedules to identify significant savings opportunities.  Taking the guesswork out of contingent labor  While the pandemic contributed to the market growth of travel nursing, hospitals in our current market should re-evaluate their contingent labor utilization. When used to cover short-term needs such as seasonal demands or staff leaves, temporary labor can serve as a strategic tool in your workforce toolbox to improve employee engagement and quality of care by giving providers much-needed support.  To effectively manage contingent labor utilization and spend, healthcare systems must leverage technology and market analytics to formulate bill rate strategies. Because of Aya’s size and scale as the largest talent software and staffing company in the U.S., clinician engagement data from Aya’s platform provides deep analysis predicting which pay packages clinicians will transact on, providing real-time, market-validated pricing. No other model can use this strategy at the scale of Aya, and, without this guidance, healthcare leaders are merely guessing rates and often overpay.  Through detailed analysis of contingent labor demand, available talent supply and clinician engagement data, Aya Healthcare provides insights on predicted job market performance before the job is posted. Job market insights provide key data and recommendations to help hospital managers maximize candidate engagement to optimize fulfillment and costs. While predictive analytics are not new, AI-generated staffing models take predictive analytics to the next level. In this era of workforce challenges, innovative healthcare leaders should not eliminate tools from their workforce toolbox. Instead, they should use all available tools strategically that maximize workforce capacity and reduce labor costs to maintain a premium level of care for patients and the community.

Transforming Healthcare Workforce Management with AI and Predictive Analytics

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On February 29, the Economist published an article succinctly titled “COVID-19 is now in 50 countries, and things will get worse.” They were very right. Exactly a month later, on March 29, the World Health Organization reported that 203 countries, areas or territories have been affected by the outbreak. Countries have been working furiously to “flatten the curve” – lower the reproductive rate of the virus -- to ease the burden on healthcare systems, buy time to find new treatments, and reduce the total number of infections throughout the course of the pandemic. With “social distancing” the key weapon in this fight, approximately 2.6 billion people, or one-third of the world’s population, are now under complete or partial lockdown. Large gatherings, day-to-day activities and business as usual have halted.  While there is no escaping the disruption this crisis is causing, there is a lot that employers can do to support their employees and employees’ families that will have a meaningful impact. Our Health on Demand research found that employees typically have a good deal of trust in their employers, and the steps you take now to help maintain their well-being -- physical, emotional, financial, and social – will echo far in the future. Here are 10 ways employers can help empower their workers to push through the uncertainty and persevere: <ul><li>Err on the side of over-communicating. Consistent communication can convey strong leadership, avoid confusion and reduce anxiety. A well-organized and supported COVID-19 communications team can take in the evolving information, distill the key implications, and distribute it effectively to the workforce. Remind employees and their managers of the support resources available through the company and in the public. </li><li>Provide testing &amp; coverage information. Employers who sponsor medical, life, disability, accident and special-risk insurance (such as business travel and expatriate coverage) should be familiar with the terms and conditions in their policies testing coverages, eligibility requirements and unique provisions for quarantine. Employers should also pay special attention to public health, law, and policy updates in their geography for further implications to testing and coverage information. Consistent messaging by managers about access to health benefits and leave is critical during a crisis. </li><li>Support mental health &amp; wellbeing. The COVID-19 pandemic is already resulting in increased stress, depression and anxiety. Employers have a role in communicating information and providing mental health support for their employees. Educating managers, making services available for those affected, and communicating the availability of Employee Assistance Programs and other support services (e.g., tele-therapy) that are in place will help to mitigate the mental health impact of the pandemic. </li><li>Encourage telemedicine. If you are an employer that provides telehealth benefits, it is imperative to communicate to employees the support that is available to them and the services available. Unnecessary exposure to infection at hospitals and care centers can be avoided through virtual care. Telemedicine or other forms of virtual care are good options for many issues. </li><li>Assist with pharmacy changes. Employers should support early refills (including for behavioral health-related prescriptions) and home delivery through a local pharmacy in order to minimize trips by employees to the pharmacy. Many employer are considering or have implemented a one-time override to allow for 90-day supplies of specialty medications. Furthermore, some employers have also extended the duration of existing authorization approvals for items such as prior authorization, step programs and quantity limit overrides to limit administrative burden, while continuing to do so for newly initiated therapies. </li><li>Leverage reliable resources. In your communications, be sure to direct employees to reliable sources of information on COVID-19, such as the WHO, Center for Disease Control (CDC), and their local public health entities. Reinforce to employees and their families that they should reference those and communications from you as their sources of truth as opposed to the 24/7 news cycle or social media. </li><li>Manage communications with local health systems &amp; public officials. A robust preparedness plan comprises governance structures, clear protocols and lines of communication. It also includes assessing supply chain viability and collaborating with public health entities. The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) has put together a Directory of Local Health Departments by state. Be sure to monitor local, state and national legislative updates to understand what else you can do to support your employees and society to flatten the curve. </li><li>Put policies &amp; processes in place. All employers should review their existing pandemic crisis management and response plans and establish new protocols for the current environment as needed. Employers should seek legal counsel and follow the direction of local public health department officials if there are concerns about known, suspected or high-risk cases. If an employee is found to have been exposed to COVID-19, there should be protocols for transport, communication and decontamination.  </li><li>Comply with occupational health needs. To ensure employee safety, check to see if company policies are in alignment with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). As businesses resume operations and individuals return to work during the COVID-19 recovery phase, all employers must manage fitness for work and other occupational health practices to keep the workforce safe. </li><li>Think innovatively. Many organizations are innovating to support their workforce. We have seen employers adding hospitalization cash allowances, enhanced mental health benefits, special caregiving benefits, even allowances for creating a comfortable home-working space. Employers are also finding new ways to manage employees in the remote working culture, with innovative training and tools. Looking outside the box for solutions can help employees to thrive inside their homes. </li></ul>While it is important to ensure that employees have access to continually updated information, it is just as important to show empathy to ensure your key messages get through. In addition, as your organization works through this stressful process, remember to take notes! Lessons learned will help pinpoint and address vulnerable areas in your business and human capital strategies in preparation for the next crisis.

Ten Ways for Employers to Assist Their Employees during the COVID-19 Outbreak

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Senior Vice President Clinical Innovation

Discover key connections to your mission and community Advancing diversity, equity and inclusion across every community is an urgent and imperative goal for many organizations. It’s essential to connect advocacy groups to health organizations, health employees to the mission of health, and consumers to services that have historically been out of reach.  To shape a more equitable health picture, leaders can collaborate with community groups to improve data collection, pinpoint local needs and take action. They can also project the impact that social determinants of health and bias within the community have on their organization. Pairing with community-based organizations  Health organizations are thinking about health equity in new ways. They’re working with community partners to share data, build whole health consumer profiles, create value-based care avenues that address inequities, and assess performance metrics. Leaders should identify local community groups that are strong potential partners. By building trusted relationships with these entities, health leaders can assist them with the support they need to implement solutions and scale. To that end, the community may already have developed possible solutions that haven’t yet been explored at a broader level. Together, health and community-based organizations can work together to finally empower the scaling of community-originated ideas.  There are many ways to approach cementing these community-based partnerships. Health organizations can financially support nonprofits. Health leaders can also serve on their boards. Additionally, they can invest in programs that serve the community needs around food, transportation, housing and other basic life needs. It can be more cost-effective for health organizations to support community work that is already serving their members through a whole-system approach. Health foundations and Medicaid health plans are also channels to fulfill members’ holistic health needs. Half the battle lies in some of the basics. Using technology to address social determinants of health Technology is an indisputable asset in supporting a patient’s health journey. It empowers a person to have more information at their fingertips, allowing them to better take charge of and manage their condition around their life, rather than their life around their condition. Technology also adds value to the greater health care ecosystem by combining important contextual information from an electronic health record — such as a patient’s health history, medications, allergies and social determinants of health — with a computerized version of best practice clinical guidelines. As a result, a more complete health picture allows providers to offer a more personalized recommendation, and that can lead to a more equitable outcome. Technology supports value-based care management through remote monitoring, patient mobile apps, artificial intelligence, automated scheduling and more. These tools also help overcome transportation- and cost-related challenges to improve access to the physical and behavioral health services people need.  Digital therapeutics further personalize the health experience by pulling together a person’s background, preferences and mental health symptoms and then matching them to an app that would fit them best.  However, it’s important to keep in mind that technology will not solve health equity on its own. For instance, access to technology itself is a social determinant of health. Those living in rural areas may not have internet or mobile service coverage that is powerful enough to enable a person to use electronic technologies for digital health. They may also lack the funds to afford these services.  Charting health equity with outcomes in mind  To identify people who are affected most by health disparities, organizations can construct a data-driven map of communities at risk. Connecting data points also provides insight into the ways social determinants, health literacy, bias and other inequities affect health outcomes. For example, a person experiencing homelessness may be driving high health care utilization rates, yet the data point that they are unhoused may not be recorded anywhere in the patient’s records. If information from multiple sectors connects these facts, then the community, public health system, homeless shelters and health organizations may be able to combine forces to assist the person in securing housing. The same structure applies to other SDOH, such as food and transportation. Health care is a major part of a community and of an ecosystem, yet there are other vital factors at play too. In fact, medical care contributes to just 20% of a person’s health outcomes, while where one lives, works and ages can have more impact on their health than any other factor. Ensuring products and services serve consumer needs Racial, ethnic and language diversity often isn’t reflected in products and service offerings. There’s no clearer business case for growth than increasing the access of products and services. Improving and simplifying readability for people with low literacy is one example of supporting an approach of diversity and inclusion. Other aspects to consider are whether your products and services can be delivered in rural areas, what your consumers’ needs are for communicating, whether a population’s primary language is English, whether products meet their needs, and if your customers understand how to use them. Serving every person, everywhere, through technology is the best business case. By thoughtfully determining how you can weave health equity into every aspect of your business, you can reach all the different dimensions of the American consumer. Listen here to explore more strategies for reducing disparities and improving health equity.

Health Equity Paves New Pathways for Integration

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