Temporary case managers can ease workload
Practice fill gaps, helps avoid staff burnout
Do vacancies due to illness or vacation leave your case management staff with a caseload they simply can’t handle?
Are patients falling through the cracks because of seasonal fluctuations in your business, a shortage of qualified full-time case managers, or unexpected staff vacancies?
If so, hiring a temporary case manager may be the solution to your problem, suggests Dia Moore, RN, director of clinical and technical services for the Compass Continuum, a case management professional staffing agency covering the Denver metropolitan area.
Moore and her partner, Vicki Peterson, RN, started the Compass Continuum in January 1999, because they had observed so many case managers burn out because of work overload.
In fact, Moore, a case manager herself, recalls 60-hour work weeks during which she found herself on the verge of total burnout.
Compass is an acronym for Case Management Professional Staffing Specialists.
"I’ve been a case manager myself, and I know that when there is a vacancy or a heavier workload, what happens is that the work either doesn’t get done at all or it isn’t done in a timely manner. This results in a cost to the company," Moore says.
Among the potential problems that arise when case managers are overworked:
- A patient who should have been discharged stays in the hospital, resulting in charges in excess of $1,000 a day.
- An injured employee doesn’t get back to work in a timely manner.
- A patient doesn’t understand his or her treatment regime, misses medication and doctor’s appointments, and doesn’t get any better. In a catastrophic case, no one monitors expenses closely and the costs soar, due in part to duplication of services.
"What happens when there is a work overload and no staff to cover it is two-fold. Case managers feel overworked and stressed and look for another job. Or they may stay on the job but they don’t do the work as well as when they aren’t stressed. Whether they stay or don’t stay, there is a decrease in productivity," Moore says.
Nurses are particularly susceptible to burnout when they are overworked because they are caring people and feel dissatisfied when they can’t get everything done, Moore says.
"If people are overworked, they’re unhappy. They feel underappreciated . . . If nurses feel appreciated, it’s amazing how productive they can be. They will happily work overtime," Moore says.
Hiring a temporary case manager doesn’t just get the immediate job done. It also supports the staff who are trying to fill the gaps left by the vacancy and may make them less likely to seek greener pastures.
When people leave a company, it costs a lot to train new employees and orient them to the way your firm does business. At the same time, the remaining staff have to pick up the workload while new employees are trained.
Temporary staffing works well for companies that have seasonal fluctuations in caseload and for employees who don’t want to work full time, says Brian LeCount, director of marketing for HPO Healthcare Staffing, a Cincinnati-based temporary staffing company. HPO fills long-term nursing vacancies throughout the company and operates local temporary staffing companies in Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Columbus, OH, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis-St. Paul.
At the beginning of the year, when managed care companies get renewals and have an influx of insured signing up, they call on the Compass Continuum to find extra help to deal with the temporary increase in work load.
O, they may call for a temporary case manager in an area that is outside their regular working area. For instance, a workers compensation company may need a case manager in an area that is too far for their staff to drive in a day. They may call on a temporary staffing agency to find someone local to do the job.
Temporary staffing also gives employers the ability to offer a flexible schedule for employees and gives the case managers an opportunity to broaden their experience by working at a variety of jobs. "I’ve had several people who moved here from out of state and used temporary jobs as an opportunity to learn about the Denver market," she says.
Temporary staffing agencies typically fill jobs for periods ranging from a day to a year. They can find a temporary employee for planned absences, like planning months in advance for someone to fill in for a case manager on maternity leave, or fill a job with only a few hours notice.
"We do what we can to meet their immediate needs and their planned needs. We provide somebody with either the same skills or strong transferable skills so the learning curve is short and they can hit the ground running," Moore says.
Most staffing agencies also offer temp-to-hire staffing, which enables an employee to try out the company for a while before deciding whether to work there permanently.
"There are a lot of times when people take a job and find out it’s not what they expected or when an employer hires someone and finds out they just don’t fit in with the company," Moore says.
With a temp-to-hire job, the employer and employee get to evaluate each other and decide if the job will work out.
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