David Koschitzki, CFO at MJHS Well being System not too long ago linked with HealthLeaders to debate staffing prices and organizational investments.
Organizations are underneath super stress to keep up their monetary well-being and the well being of the folks they look after, however components together with the repercussions of the pandemic, inflation, labor shortages, skyrocketing bills, and a cessation of presidency reduction funds have made an already laborious process virtually herculean.
One healthcare supplier that has seen its fair proportion of challenges during the last three years is MJHS Well being System—a 115-year-old well being system primarily based in New York Metropolis specializing in senior, hospice, and palliative care. The group’s chief monetary officer, David Koschitzki, is saved awake at night time by a number of considerations, however the primary one is retaining bills down with out making cuts in useful areas.
Koschitzki not too long ago linked with HealthLeaders to debate staffing prices and organizational investments.
HealthLeaders: What’s in your thoughts most as of late?
David Koschitzki: Because the chief monetary officer, I’ve full accountability for making certain that we’re making sound enterprise selections, getting into into sound enterprise partnerships, keeping track of the underside line always, and ensuring that we’re staying forward as finest as we will of what’s going on on the market. Seeing what’s coming and attempting to adapt and prepare to arrange ourselves for upcoming challenges—and the challenges have been many.
Plenty of issues maintain me up at night time. I am most involved about managing prices with out chopping packages and companies. The rising prices related to being a not-for-profit healthcare group in some of the costly U.S. cities are difficult. Reimbursement ranges, whether or not from Medicare or Medicaid, aren’t sufficient to offset rising prices, whether or not it is attributable to inflation prices, wage necessities, value of dwelling realities, provide chain points, or easy operational prices related to being in one of many world’s costliest cities.
One other problem is the scarcity of staffing and the shortages of nursing workers in any respect ranges, not simply registered nurses, but in addition licensed sensible nurses and even licensed nursing aides. Clearly, that causes prices to rise as plans and totally different suppliers compete with each other for a restricted workers. That is what’s been essentially the most vital problem during the last couple of years, notably proper now.
HL: What options are in place to take care of the labor problem?
Koschitzki: We attempt to be artistic, and progressive in methods to not solely appeal to new workers however even to retain the present workers. Lots of our workers have been right here for a very long time. It has been a superb place to work for a very long time. And so, plenty of the present workers … are coming in direction of the tip of their work careers. We’re doing what we will … to draw new workers, by being extra versatile on the subject of working from residence or hybrid fashions of labor. However we’re additionally attempting to incentivize and retain by means of enhanced pay by means of bonus packages, and different worker advantages which are geared in direction of worker satisfaction.
We additionally supply worker recognition packages that target making certain that staff are feeling sustained and fulfilled. It is necessary for them to have an outlet for stress and anxiousness, so there are different initiatives that talk to the personnel facet of their job obligations. Within the coming 12 months, we’ll be implementing real-time wellness checkups.
HL: As CFO, the place would you prefer to see the group make larger monetary investments?
Koschitzki: We have been investing in various totally different initiatives. Staffing is primarily the biggest funding that we have been making. As I stated, we’ve to handle compensation points, and we should handle the competitiveness of the trade. So, we have enhanced workers salaries as an funding in our workers, and we have enhanced packages to draw workers.
Digital expertise is one thing that is necessary to us as nicely. Being a not-for-profit well being system, we’ve boards of administrators who’ve plenty of curiosity in what we do and we’re mission-driven. Expertise is necessary to them, they usually’ve made certain it is a precedence with administration and management to make sure that we’re investing correctly in that, so we will advance and put together for the longer term.
At the moment, New York is forty eighth or forty ninth, when it comes to hospice utilization by state. Though our hospice program is among the largest within the space, there’s super room for development and so we’re notably centered on extra relationship-building and educating everybody from physicians and hospital teams to group organizations.
Amanda Schiavo is the Finance Editor for HealthLeaders.