This September, the Flex Monitoring Team released the Workforce Toolkit to Support Critical Access Hospitals and Rural Providers. The toolkit was created to assist Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) in tackling the unique issues they may face in recruiting and retaining staff. The toolkit consists of five modules, including an introductory module, which are designed to provide the most pertinent information and resources to CAHs and their leaders, as well as State Flex Programs that support CAHs. 

Module Key Points:

Introduction Module: Workforce

• CAHs face unique challenges as small and often rural hospitals.
• Workforce retention poses major issues for CAHs, particularly as burnout is a major concern for CAH staff who often have more roles and responsibilities than their peers at urban and large hospitals.
• There are a variety of resources and strategies to combat workforce shortages among CAHs: education and training, student loan forgiveness, quality of life improvement for CAH workforce, and utilization of advanced practice practitioners and traveling/temporary staff.

Module 1: Organizational Culture and Leadership

• To address their facility’s workforce needs and to prevent their own burnout, CAH leaders should have competency in many skills.
• Key strategies for promoting a positive work culture are outlined in this module, with a focus on prioritizing staff. Case studies from hospitals are provided for reference.
• Recruitment of staff for CAHs requires extra consideration, as level of fit is one predictor for employee satisfaction and retention, as well as hospital success.
• CAHs have unique traits that can be appealing to prospective staff: 
  • A different quality and pace of life that comes with rural living
  • The ability to do a wide variety of tasks and procedures that may not be possible in a large hospital
  • Becoming ingrained in their community and seeing the impact they have on their community firsthand

Module 2: Leveraging Partnerships

• CAHs can use partnerships with other health care providers, educational institutions, and community organizations to support areas of need in their hospital. Some examples of when to leverage partnerships are:
  • To address staffing shortages
  • During emergencies that require extra personnel and resources
  • When negotiating rates with insurance companies 
  • Community health needs assessments and community benefit spending
  • Workforce pathway and provider rural training programs

Module 3: Emergency Medical Services Workforce

• The wide variation in EMS organization, workforce, and service reach can pose challenges for CAHs.
• Rural EMS agencies often struggle with reimbursement and rising operational costs.
• Rural EMS agencies and CAHs (including those that operate EMS services) can utilize resources and opportunities such as education and training programs, scholarships and grants, cross-certification efforts, and strategic engagement of volunteers to bolster their EMS workforce and retention.

Module 4: Administrative & Support Staff Workforce

• Administrative staff are responsible for tasks like patient recordkeeping, scheduling, and billing, and are often the first people patients and their families encounter at a hospital. Support staff include roles like custodial and facilities management staff. This section also includes hospital technicians, such as x-ray technicians and phlebotomists. 
• Enhancing recruitment and retention beyond raising wages includes strategies like prioritizing work-life balance, offering remote or hybrid opportunities, and facilitating professional development.
• Decreasing barriers to entry is vital for administrative and support staff recruitment and retention. 
• Promoting employee safety will aid with retention rates, as well as providing quality care to patients. 

The Flex Monitoring Team hopes that the release of the Workforce Toolkit will provide CAHs and State Flex Programs with new ideas and resources to make their hospitals as successful as possible in providing a safe and satisfactory work environment for employees, as well as providing quality patient care. 

The Flex Monitoring Team (FMT) is pleased to announce the launch of its newly redesigned website. While the web address remains the same—flexmonitoring.org—the site has been completely updated and reorganized to focus on user experience and on making the site accessible to all audiences.  

On the new site, users can search through over fifteen years of evaluation by the Flex Program. The “Our Work” section of the navigation bar houses all current and past research on Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) and rural health. The “Publications” page organizes all products, including national reports produced annually on quality improvement, community benefit, and financial performance data, by date. Users can search and filter results to find more information on other topics ranging from EMS and hospital services to financial distress and evidence-based best practices. The homepage also highlights the most recent reports, briefs, and papers.

State-level analyses can be found through the new State Profiles section of the website, which includes a map that leads to individual state profiles, making it easier to find publications relating to a specific state in the Flex Program. For example, the Alabama state profile contains all HCAHPS, Hospital Compare, community benefit, and financial indicators reports produced for the state since 2004. The page also lists any other publications that mention Alabama.

Other new features include an interactive map of CAH locations and a sortable list of current CAH location data that is also available for download.

CAHMPAS remains a priority of the FMT, and now, on the new site, every page links to the data query tool for quick access to financial, quality, and community benefit data.

Over time, the FMT plans to add more resources to the website, including a news page to showcase the exciting work being done in the Flex Program. Stay tuned!

To learn more about the FMT and its staff, users can explore a detailed “About Us” section. If you have any questions or concerns about the new site, please feel free to contact the FMT’s communications coordinator, Anya Magnuson.