COVID-19 Crisis: How to Boost Practice Morale and Stay Connected

Your practice is adjusting to a landslide of constant changes caused by the recent coronavirus pandemic — decreased patient volumes, remote or furloughed staff, absences due to quarantine orders, etc.

However, your patients are still relying on you to provide care and help them overcome the surmounting coronavirus fear and stress.

Now, more than ever, it’s essential that you stay connected with your staff and keep their morale high.

While an employee-of-the-month award, a special parking space, and monogrammed sweaters have their place in making employees feel appreciated, a pandemic rewrites the rules. Communities across the nation are stepping up to help healthcare workers. But what can you do within your practice to make sure you’re letting your staff know they are a valued, and your top priority?

In the midst of layoffs, or reduced hours, you want your staff to feel like you did everything you could for them, notes Owen Dahl, MBA, LFACHE, CHBC, LSSMBB, practice management expert consultant & trainer in his free online training session.

Communicating openly with your staff during times of uncertainty is the best thing you can do to maintain trust, which is vital to weathering this storm. Employees are a valuable asset and you need to make sure you communicate with them. Talk with your staff and make sure they are trained and aware of what’s going on, notes Dahl.

Here Are 10 Ways You Can Boost Practice Morale And Stay Connected:

Reassure your Staff. Be honest with your employees that you can’t predict the full extent of the covid-19 crisis or the long term outlook but you are following CDC guidelines for healthcare professionals. Also, make a commitment to learn from this pandemic and develop a plan that will help you in any future pandemic, whether this one evolves or a new one arises, suggests Dahl. Assure your staff that you plan to make it through the crisis and come out on the other side as a stronger team.
Feed your staff. Providing food for your staff can help tremendously during this crisis. Healthy breakfast, brunch, or lunch options like breakfast pizza, muffins, fruit trays, sandwiches, and snacks to graze throughout the day will alleviate the need for employees to leave during their breaks, and it will dissuade them from skipping meals. Plus, ordering food from local restaurants who have to close their dining rooms is a great way to give back the community by supporting local businesses.
Be flexible. This isn’t the time to penalize your staff for being late or calling out, especially if they’re trying to juggle family needs related to the pandemic. Reevaluate if your paid time off policy can be expanded, and relax on employee reprimands during this challenging time.
Reach out to staff with children. With schools across the nation closing, you undoubtedly have employees who are struggling with balancing work and childcare. Cut them slack if they are late or need to call out, find ways that they can work from home if that helps, and let them know about all of the options available to them through the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) should they need to take time off.
Let employees work from home. Not everyone in healthcare can work from home, but there are several jobs that can transfer off site. Your revenue cycle team, receptionists, and even some telehealth nurses or physicians can work from home, notes Dahl. This accommodation helps you keep fewer people in the office to help reduce the spread of COVID-19, and it provides employees with a safe place to social distance while still helping your practice stay afloat.
Share shifts. If you are faced with reduced patient volume and need to reduce your workforce, instead of cutting a few jobs, consider reducing the number of employee’s hours instead. This way everyone shares the burden, explains Dahl. Rotate shift schedules so the cut hours are evenly distributed, and you can keep staff on payroll.
Work with insurance carriers. Oftentimes insurance benefits are available to employees who work full time or a minimum number of weekly hours. If you need to reduce employee’s hours, work with the insurance carrier and see if you can continue to pay for employee’s insurance while staff are on reduced hours or furloughed, recommends Dahl. You want them to feel like they are an important part of your practice asserts
Huddle daily. The daily huddle is a great way to stay connected with your team, notes Dahl. You can discuss important agenda items for the day, or regroup at the end of the day to see where is everyone is at. If you have employees working remotely, switch your daily huddle to video conferencing so that you can still connect.
Check on employee wellness. Have managers personally check in with every employee to see how they are doing. Ask about their COVID-19 concerns, and encourage them with an open door policy especially during this time. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offers tips for stress and coping that you can with your employees, including hotline numbers for disaster distress and domestic abuse.
Pursue staff development. If your staff has downtime from reduced hours put it to good use with developmental training, recommends Dahl. Webinars and online classes are great ways to not only gain new knowledge, but mental distractions from pandemic news are healthy and learning is motivating. An added bonus? You really can find free training online! Dahl and infectious disease practitioner, Javeed Siddiqui, MD, offer practice management COVID-19 preparation and survival training that are easy to access online.