Building a Sustainable Future Health Care Workforce
AHA Knowledge Exchange
Creating agile and people-centered health care systems
The future of health care lies not in working harder, but in working smarter by creating systems that empower care teams and deliver timely, high-quality outcomes for patients. Today’s challenges — staffing shortages, increasing care complexity and financial pressures — are deeply interconnected and require integrated, forward-thinking solutions. When the right data, tools and workflows reach the right people at the right moment, health care teams become more agile and efficient. Leading organizations are reimagining care delivery from the bedside outward, harnessing technology, intelligent infrastructure and cross-functional collaboration to drive performance and elevate both patient and staff experiences. This Knowledge Exchange e-book explores how aligning workforce management, care delivery and revenue cycle operations can help build a more adaptive, people-first health care system.
8 executive-tested strategies for a sustainable, people-centered care model
- Pilot and scale virtual nursing to support bedside teams. Measure impacts on nurse retention, overtime hours and patient-experience scores before expanding systemwide.
- Redesign workflows with EHR-device integration. Deploy an initiative to connect your electronic health record to IV pumps, bed alarms and mobile charting tools; track reductions in manual clicks, documentation time and workflow bottlenecks to justify further investment.
- Deploy AI-powered documentation support. Select pilot units to implement natural-language and template-driven artificial intelligence tools for nursing and physician documentation; compare time to record, error rates and clinician satisfaction pre- and post-implementation.
- Expand and evolve nurse residency programs. Strengthen nurse residency by formalizing cross-unit rotations after 12 months. Set quarterly targets for retention and specialty transitions.
- Optimize the revenue cycle with robotic process automation to reduce manual effort and errors. Establish a revenue cycle center of excellence to centralize expertise, enforce governance and drive continuous improvement.
- Automate talent acquisition and shift bidding. Implement AI scheduling tools to cut interview setup to less than one hour, reassign administrative full-time equivalents to strategic human relations functions, and roll out a self-service, shift-bidding platform that fills open shifts.
- Invest in local workforce pipelines. Partner with regional high schools and community colleges to fund certified nursing assistant and licensed practical nurse training programs, using sponsorships over sign-on bonuses. Set enrollment and graduation goals.
- Shift from reactive crisis management to proactive planning. Deploy real-time dashboards for open positions, staff-absence patterns and emergency department throughput. Leverage predictive analytics to forecast callouts and optimize scheduling.
Participants
Jodie Allen, R.N., MSN
Chief Nursing Officer
Wickenburg Community Hospital
Crystal Beckford, R.N., MHA
Chief Nursing Officer and Vice President of Patient Care Services
Luminis Health Doctors Community Medical Center
Cheryl Cioffi, DNP, R.N., NEA-BC, FACHE
President and CEO
Frederick Health
Terrie Handy
Vice President and Chief Revenue Cycle Officer
Legacy Health
John Higgins, MBA, SPHR, RACR, RACL
Vice President of Talent Management
Essentia Health
Denise Mihal, R.N., MBA
Executive Vice President and Chief Nursing and Clinical Operations Officer
Novant Health
Beatrice Miller, MS, R.N., OCN, PAHM, CCM, NEA-BC
System Senior Director of Nursing Operations and Optimization
Luminis Health
Karly Rowe, MBA
President of Provider Business Unit
Inovalon
Sharlene Seidman, MBA
Senior Vice President of Revenue Cycle
Yale New Haven Health
Helen Staples-Evans, DNP, R.N.
Senior Vice President of Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer
Loma Linda University Health
Jenene VandenBurg, MS, BSN, R.N.
Vice President of Patient Services and Chief Nursing Officer
Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital
Moderator:
Suzanna Hoppszallern
Senior Editor, Center for Health Innovation
American Hospital Association
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