Managing Surge Capacity: Advice From 13 Medical Leaders on Scaling in Healthcare (Part 3 of 5)

This is Part 3 of our five-part series on scaling healthcare practices with tips from 13 medical experts.

You can check out the first installment, Scaling Without Compromise, for background on the expected growth of the healthcare industry and a full guide to the series.

In our last article, Part 2: Mitigating Staffing Shortages, our experts weighed in on how to avoid becoming an understaffed practice and what to do if you find yourself facing a shortage. Tips around hiring part-time practitioners, creative recruitment, and using technology to speed up administrative tasks topped the list of strategies our experts use.

While staffing shortages are a long-term problem, the issue of surge capacity presents itself in short-term instances. Surge capacity, the ability to evaluate and care for a volume of patients that challenges or exceeds normal operating capacity, is a growing concern for many healthcare leaders. 

Surge capacity can often last months (like over-extended hospitals in 2020 during the pandemic), but can also occur in much shorter windows of time (like seasonal flu surges). Surge capacity doesn’t always signify a need to hire more care team members, but it does require that you properly resource your staff to meet patient needs and compliance requirements.

Here’s how medical leaders are getting creative to manage surge capacity, and what they advise you look out for.

Adopting technology for workforce management

Dr. Ormond recommends using workforce management tools that sync into your practice’s scheduling software.

“Tools like Kronos or Shift Admin can assist in managing staff shifts and ensuring adequate staffing levels,” said Dr. Ordmond. 

Dr. Kevin Huffman, D.O., a board-certified bariatric physician and the CEO and Founder of Ambari Nutrition, takes a similar approach. 

“Through appointment trend analysis and through examining patient needs, we can forecast times when we will hit our peaks. During those times, we can know if we need to get temporary staffing agencies to bring in more medical assistants or nurses temporarily,” he explained.

Taking an agile approach to practice management  

Dr. Huffman and his team take other approaches to manage surge capacity to avoid the need to always bring on new, temporary staff. 

“We also cross-train existing staff for certain tasks. It’s a great way to ensure everything goes smoothly when we’re busy,” he explained.

The rising popularity of and comfortability with virtual therapy has also presented new opportunities for practices. While there isn’t a single day or time that is in the highest demand for sessions, many practices and mental health providers see a rise in demand at certain times of the week or year.  

Matt Grammer, LPPC-S and the Founder of Counseling Now, explained that finding a robust telehealth platform that allowed his staff to see patients at non-traditional hours has helped them scale.

“By implementing a better telehealth platform, our therapists can attend to more patients without jeopardizing care quality. We created part-time jobs that had flexibility in hiring. Some of these roles allowed therapists to work during unconventional hours to broaden our talent pool while increasing job satisfaction and retention among current employees,” Grammer said.

Surge capacity can be a compliance issue

Planning for surge capacity can be especially important in emergency medicine and in-person care environments. Failing to do so can open practices to risk and potential legal action, explained Martin Gasparian, personal injury attorney and the owner of Maison Law.

“Managing staffing capacities should involve anticipating the number of patients your practice may receive and ensuring that you employ an adequate number of employees. That way, you avoid putting patients’ health at risk as they are attended to in time,” he said.

Gasparian explained that planning for surge capacity may mean renting or constructing extra buildings to accommodate patients and properly training staff on facilities management and law compliance. 

Summary: How to manage surge capacity

• Use shift management tools like Kronos or Shift Admin
• Analyze appointment trends to determine when peak demand will occur
• Cross-train existing staff to take on multiple roles when needed
• Use telehealth platforms to allow staff to work in-demand, non-traditional hours
• Train team on surge capacity laws to avoid lawsuits or compliance issues

Up next?

Part 4 will highlight how experts are thinking about AI’s advancements in healthcare. Is it the solution healthcare professionals and patients are looking for? What should practitioners be on the lookout for?