Non-clinical staff typically refers to a wide range of people whose labor often goes unacknowledged: receptionists, finance professionals, schedulers, food service workers, IT support, lab technicians, and researchers, among others. A survey conducted in March of 2023 found that nearly half of healthcare workers in these non-clinical roles experienced burnout. For administrative staff in particular, burnout often stems from arduous administrative and managerial failures to recognize and address burnout among these staff members. Over-complicated insurance policies also play a part.
Burnout among non-clinical healthcare workers is an urgent issue that demands innovative solutions. Non-clinical workers are more than twice as likely as clinical staff to leave their jobs under the strain of work overload. Start-up leaders hoping to create new and sustainable healthcare solutions — for workers and patients alike — must consider non-clinical healthcare workers.
Insurance Policies Put a High Administrative Burden on Non-Clinical Staff
With few exceptions, nearly everything that takes place within a healthcare setting involves an insurance organization. Non-clinical workers often serve as middlemen between insurers, providers, and patients, facilitating claims. This work must be done as efficiently and accurately as possible, while following insurance policies and protocols that vary by insurer and require constant follow-up and a formidable amount of paperwork.
Depending on the claim balance, the protracted process can also have a significant negative impact on the Net Patient Revenue calculation, as well as the provider’s reserves. The current system often requires administrative workers to become patient advocates while simultaneously creating tension between those same patients and the non-clinical staff working to ensure their medically necessary care is covered.
These inefficiencies mean insurance reconciliation contributes significantly to non-clinical healthcare worker burnout — but it doesn’t have to. All of these issues can be solved by more effective business practices, which will, in turn, enable workers to better serve patients.
Rather than requiring workers to manage disparate processes, healthcare providers and insurance companies can collaborate to establish standardized procedures for routine functions such as claims processing, prior authorization, and billing. By adopting innovative data-sharing agreements and establishing common electronic formats for data exchange, both healthcare and insurance organizations can save more time and resources.
Necessary communication between non-clinical workers and clinical staff will be streamlined, making it easier for administrators to get insurers the information they require. Tech-savvy start-ups in the healthcare space today are uniquely suited to make these shifts by facilitating the use of automation in healthcare settings and paving the way for a significant reduction in redundant paperwork.
Making this change does require health tech leaders to work with insurers to create best practices and effective avenues for information-sharing. Once such practices are established, however, health start-ups can focus on collaborating to bring about further structural changes, such as a transition from fee-for-service reimbursement models to alternatives like flat rate per-member-per-month (PMPM) billing and value-based contracts, which reduce administrative overhead by tying payments to agreed-upon care outcomes and clinical circumstances.
Together, insurers and healthcare leaders can advocate for policy changes that streamline administrative processes, reduce regulatory burdens while preserving patient outcomes, and promote interoperability and data standardization across the healthcare ecosystem.
Creating Mission-Forward Work Environments
While only doctors officially swear to “do no harm” under the Hippocratic Oath, most healthcare workers are drawn to the field out of a desire to help people. The patient experience is shaped by all interactions at every stage of treatment, and this includes interactions with non-clinical administrative workers. Often, these workers are the first, most frequent, and final point of contact for patients throughout treatment—but they may feel disconnected from the mission at the heart of their work as a result of their distance from the clinical practice.
Even clinical workers feel increasing distance from their patients, now that most spend less time with patients, and more on paperwork. According to research from The Commonwealth Fund, the majority of primary care providers in high-income countries believe the quality of care they’re able to provide has worsened since the Covid-19 pandemic began. Less than a third felt they were able to spend enough time with their patients. This alienation and lack of fulfillment can be worsened by a lack of community within the workplace, as discussed by Christina Maslach and Michael P. Leiter in their book, The Truth About Burnout: How Organizations Cause Personal Stress and What to Do About It.
During my time at Cancer Treatment Centers of America, we worked to actively center the patient perspective; our CEO at the time would begin each executive meeting by reading a letter from a patient, a model I highly recommend — especially to founders building new healthcare ventures from the ground-up. This practice helped us connect with one another around our shared values and stay focused and aligned on our ultimate mission: helping people.
Meaningful Action to Address the Non-Clinical Worker Burnout Crisis
Acknowledgement of the ways in which burnout affects non-clinical healthcare workers is a first step. In order to make acknowledgement meaningful, healthcare organizations and leaders should also take action, dedicating themselves to continual understanding and improvement. A study conducted by The Brigham and Women’s Hospital found that while some organizations have made efforts to address burnout, workload reduction initiatives in medicine are “haphazard” and “largely concentrated on trainees.”
A comprehensive effort to address overwork would require managers to create systems capable of monitoring workloads and ensuring tasks are distributed fairly across teams. Where possible, non-clinical staff should be offered increased flexibility — not just during training but as a permanent part of their workflow. This is yet another area where start-ups with more non-traditional workplace cultures have the potential to excel.
Many new start-ups have the resources to facilitate a more flexible workplace, including compressed workweeks, variable schedules, and remote and hybrid schedules. Creating workplace cultures that celebrate employees’ contributions through recognition programs and morale-boosting activities can foster a sense of camaraderie and connection, which has been shown to help with stress management. These advancements can help employees achieve better satisfaction and work-life balance, ultimately working to solve our burnout crisis.
Source: GRITDAILY
Add Comment