24,000 Healthcare Providers Across 5,600 Clinics: Workforce Challenges, High Expenses

• AMGA Survey:  clinical staffing FTEs fell 11.3%, staffing expenses rose 15%
• Declining staffing ratios and high labor expenses for medical groups
• Patient volumes rebounded from the early months of pandemic, but workforce did not.

2022 was a tough year for staffing in key direct patient care roles, per the American Medical Group Association (AMGA) 2022 Report: Medical Group Operations and Finance Survey.

Dr. Ed Partridge, Guideway Care’s chief medical officer, says “Based upon conversations with practices and hospitals across the country, this situation is unlikely to change in the short term, emphasizing the need for medical groups to adopt programs, such as our care guidance solution, that optimize clinical staff by relieving them of non-clinical duties and responsibilities for addressing access to care outside the practice setting – including resolving social determinants of health (SDoH).Numerous medical practices now rely upon our specially trained care guides to shoulder these burdens and operate efficiently, freeing up the time and valuable resources of nurses and clinicians to perform direct patient care.”

Data from MGMA also revealed that medical groups have considered limiting the number of new Medicare patients and reducing clinical staff to keep finances afloat amid upcoming Medicare payment cuts.

“By adopting a Guideway care guidance program and adding these capabilities to the practice portfolio of services, medical groups can avoid such taking such potentially undesirable measures that impact their ability to serve the community with quality care,” continues Dr.  Partridge. “By utilizing our trained non-clinical resources to work with patients and caregivers to understand and resolve their barriers to care will result in a uniform care experience and optimal outcomes. It’s an opportunity to maintain clinical service levels, overcome clinical staffing shortages and enhance financial performance.”

Financial struggles resulting from rising costs and workforce shortages caused the number of healthcare bankruptcies to increase by 84 percent from 2021 to 2022, research showed.

“At a time when quality medical care is desperately needed throughout the country, there should be no excuse for medical practices to experience this type of economic failure,” says Dr. Partridge.  “Our solution holds an important key to robust operational and financial execution.”

Care Guides
Guideway Care’s innovative patient-centric approach is creating measurable impact on patient outcomes, reported satisfaction and quality scores, as well as lowering care management expenses and total cost of care.

Trained and focused non-clinical Care Guides establish a connected relationship with patients and their families. Serving as the main patient point of contact, this peer-to-patient connection lowers patient resistance to sharing personal information and provides individuals with the guidance they need to take action and engage in the process of their care.

Guideway Care empowers its team of Care Guides with evidence-based disease and condition-specific protocols, as well as a comprehensive care guidance technology platform. To ensure smooth operations, the process begins with an Action Gap Assessment, which evaluates the preparedness of a medical practice to implement personalized patient engagement and make sure the organization is prepared to deliver the proper non-clinical protocols for the best experiences.

Just-in-time human communications enable patients to get information they need to engage in the process of their care and to activate behavioral changes.

Guiding the Future of Equitable Healthcare

Guideway Care recognizes the importance of addressing SDoH. Guideway provides care guidance and health equity programs in a solution as a service model, delivering highly trained “care guides” that operate within a scalable, technology-enabled platform to activate patients and uncover and resolve practical, non-clinical issues and barriers experienced during their care journey.

Contact us for more insight into how Guideway Care, as your partner, could implement an efficient and effective Care Guide solution to proactively resolve SDoH issues, and deliver on the promise of health equity based on the needs of the patient populations in your community.