Trends

A hospital’s competency in delivering timely and impactful care depends on access to quality surgeons, specialty physicians, and advanced practice clinicians to ensure consistent healthcare staffing. Along with mounting talent shortages, the pandemic compounded the increase in healthcare workforce burnout. As a result many clinicians are making lifestyle choices that leave many hospitals ill-equipped to scale their clinical personnel quickly.

Synergy Health Partners, a Top 10 Healthcare Staffing and management firm, is flipping this script. Through its intuitive Surgicalist staffing and management strategies, it aids hospitals in eliminating last-minute scrambling to fill shifts while helping to better manage care assignments. Its comprehensive programs ensure consistent staffing to handle round-the-clock call, manage entire surgical and anesthesia departments, and grow orthopedic, trauma and general surgery programs for hospitals of all sizes.

Dr. Richard Makowiec, the chief surgical officer at Synergy Health Partners, notes that surgery is one of the top specialties driving the most revenue for hospitals. However, care facilities need a fully staffed surgical team that includes qualified surgeons, anesthesiologists, and advanced practitioners to fill the vacancies in their surgical blocks and meet evolving care demands. This leads to a steady revenue decline and a reduction in service levels. Mitigating this requires hospital leaders to better foresee and prepare for volume vs cost-cutting initiatives, which is only possible if they are adequately staffed and well-managed. Recognizing this, Synergy creates innovative models proven to attract skilled surgeons, anesthesiologists, and other advanced practitioners, enabling hospitals and communities across the U.S. to maintain consistent staffing and revenue streams.

“Instead of a transitional solution, we focus on helping hospital leaders build permanent, sustainable programs, rather than just filling vacancies, while supporting providers in pursuing their best professional and personal lives,” says Dr. Makoweic.

He further elaborates how many care professionals are quitting their clinical careers due to burnout, while others wish to stick with their specialty and seek unconventional solutions that can better support their personal lives and promote more work-life balance.

Considering clinicians’ personal and professional interests, Synergy’s models are developed with flexibility in mind. Its founders are visionaries of the Surgicalist Model—a hospital-based career path for surgeons that separates private practice work from acute hospital-based care. Developed over two decades ago by two forward-thinking orthopedic surgeons, the Surgicalist Model aims to alleviate the nation’s need for more orthopedic and general surgeons. The model enables surgeons to obtain the flexibility of working only seven to ten consecutive days per month, allowing for predictable time off, which is helpful for doctors looking to transition from the hassles of private practice and enjoy more personal time. In addition, it assists them in becoming integral members of hospital-based teams and serving as physician leaders in their designated communities. Even in areas with a shortage of qualified candidates, its Surgicalist Model enables local patient access to emergent and acute surgical care. Synergy improves clinical consistency, hospital efficiency, and in many circumstances, downstream hospital income.

Unlike locum tenens physicians, Synergy’s Surgicalists are devoted to their assigned hospital, functioning as part of a clinical team that efficiently coordinates shifts to cover emergent, elective, and in-patient consultation needs. This collaborative approach alleviates their pressure and allows them to rest easy, knowing that their patients will receive excellent treatment in their absence. They can enhance a care facility’s community-related initiatives by engaging with end-consumers to educate and promote the hospital’s services.

Concurrently, Surgicalists support private-practice physicians by providing on-call care, which allows them to limit their emergency department responsibilities, unwind at the end of the day, and be well-rested for following-day procedures. Precisely understanding the demands of their clinicians, hospitals establish robust staffing, boost workforce satisfaction, and maintain access to qualified clinicians even in difficult-to-recruit regions.

Above all, the Surgicalist Model allows care facilities to gain a skilled, reliable lineup of surgeons while backing doctors with a coordinated team to deliver a more predictable schedule and fulfilling personal lives. The systematic approach safeguards vital revenue streams for hospitals while allowing patients in their community to seamlessly and continuously access the required care. The model is proven to work for diverse staffing needs, including surgical, anesthesia, and emergency departments.

Based on its distinctive competencies, Synergy has assisted numerous care facilities in growing their programs and achieving organizational objectives. In one instance, it helped a two-hospital system looking to enhance their orthopedic surgery volumes and limit the transfer of cases to other facilities. Synergy implemented a staffing and management plan that helped them develop the desired program, expand it to three facilities and achieve a Level II Trauma Designation. It recently completed eight years of working with this client, increasing orthopedic surgery volumes by 40 percent, expanding service reach, and helping them become a Center of Excellence in the communities they serve.

Synergy emerges as a leader in the healthcare staffing landscape through its unique Staffing and Surgicalist Models for hospitals and clinicians. It continues to transform the U.S. healthcare system by encouraging surgeons, anesthesiologists, and other physicians to provide their sought-after skills to facilities that desperately need them while helping them maintain proper work-life balance.

View source version on Healthcare Business Review