KRISTIN: Hello, and welcome to Healthcare Workforce Unplugged, a Medical Solutions podcast where we explore the people, data, and strategies shaping the healthcare workforce. If you’re a healthcare leader navigating the healthcare labor crisis in the United States, you’re in the right place.
I’m your host, Kristin Dahl, and today’s episode is all about data. Specifically, what nearly 4,000 clinicians told us in our annual Voices of Care Survey. We’re talking about how healthcare professionals really feel about technology, support, and the factors that shape their job satisfaction. Joining me today are two fantastic guests: Chase Farmer, our Chief Commercial Officer, and Karin Selfors, our Chief Client Officer. Chase, Karin, thanks for being here today.
CHASE: Thanks for having us.
KARIN: Thank you.
KRISTIN: So, let’s dive right in. The Voices of Care survey gathered feedback from clinicians. Everyone from RNs to LPNs to allied health professionals and CNAs. We wanted to understand what they really value in their work experience. Karin, I’ll start with you. What stood out to you in the data?
KARIN: Yeah, what stood out to me is that 66% of all the responses pointed to our clinicians still caring to have both a combination of human interactions along with technology.
Personally, I thought that was a high percentage. On the flip side, only 11% prefer no human interaction or simply engaging with a platform. And so, it’s very clear that the human element continues to be very important to our clinicians. And that’s probably a good thing for the time being. I think that over time that might change somewhat, continue to change, but for the time being, I was surprised to be honest that the percentage is still so high.
KRISTIN: Yeah, absolutely. As you mentioned that theme came through loud and clear. Clinicians don’t want to choose between human support and digital tools. They want a mix of both, and that’s something that we’ve built into our model.
Chase, I’ll move on to you next. You’ve been with Medical Solutions for quite some time now. Can you tell us about how we combine that human support with technology when it comes to supporting clinicians specifically throughout their journey?
CHASE: It really starts with recruitment. One of the core beliefs at Medical Solutions is to meet our clinicians where they are in their journey and that ranges from personal preference, and where they are at what stage of their career. And there’s a wide expectation or need from those clinicians. You could have a nurse that’s on their first travel contract, for instance, versus a nurse that has completed 15 or 20 travel contracts, if we’re talking about contingent staff. And they might have different preferences. You have some on one end of the spectrum that want a white glove service – very involved service – and others that really love the efficiency and the effectiveness of being able to use technology to manage their journey. Most people fit somewhere kind of in the middle. But we spend a lot of energy to really focus on understanding that and hopefully even anticipating it to some extent. Ultimately, we want the clinicians that are working for our clients to have the best experience because if they’re having a fantastic experience then they can focus on the care of their patients, which is ultimately the most important thing.
KRISTIN: Yeah, absolutely. Really great information. Thanks for sharing that. I also want to talk more about what it means to hospitals and healthcare systems that we work with.
Karin, in your role, you’re working with these hospitals and healthcare systems. Can you explain how we support those customers, not just by giving them a platform, but by working alongside them to solve workforce challenges?
KARIN: Yeah, Kristin, what’s important for our customers is that we listen and clearly understand their pain points. We achieve that with human interaction and meeting face- to-face and listening. And we also heavily utilize our data to analyze these pain points and then come up with ways to help our clients best solve their needs. Additionally, of course, we are investing heavily in our tech platforms so that we can complement our solutions we come up with for our clients in the most efficient way. So most importantly, it really isn’t just about providing a self-service technology platform. It’s our experience that the clients value, in combination with people, the right processes and technology to best achieve their desired outcomes for talent acquisition.
KRISTIN: Yeah. Another thing we hear about is how so many companies will throw technology at a hospital or healthcare system and expect them to run with it. But those teams don’t always have time to figure that out alone and they really shouldn’t have to. They should be focusing on that patient care which is number one. So, Chase, from a strategic and data lens, what does our approach look like when it’s done correctly?
CHASE: Absolutely. So, the first thing I would say is technology is a tool. It’s not an outcome, right? Dashboards or spreadsheets alone really hold little intrinsic value. As Karin had said, what really transforms those things into a real powerhouse and gives you meaningful ability to move forward is to extract insight. And with that insight, that’s what helps to drive decision-making and what we really try to emphasize is to understand within an organization: What are their goals? What are the organizational goals that we are trying to achieve? And how can the technology producing that data create an opportunity for us to turn that into meaningful insights and then to partner with those clients to achieve those changes or that evolution to help them to reach those goals?
KRISTIN: With so many hospitals facing pressures like rising patient volumes, tighter budgets, and persistent workforce shortages, we’re seeing more organizations look for a single strategic partner who can help them manage it all. Karin, can you explain how Medical Solutions supports clients beyond just filling roles? How do we partner with them to build a more cohesive workforce strategy?
KARIN: Yeah, indeed. We’re absolutely seeing that, as our clients really want less but more strategic and closer partnerships. We work with our clients really to consult them on the entire workforce strategy not just for contingent labor. Especially as you say in today’s environment with all the pressures that the healthcare systems have in terms of mounting costs, it’s important that we explore every angle holistically. So, for instance, how does overtime in their full-time workforce impact on them? Could that be augmented with contingent labor? What could be the potential savings? So, going deeper and using data to make decisions requires an understanding of the strategic objectives of us of these healthcare systems, our partners that we work with. And so therefore at Medical Solutions Group, we really are looking to be a closer, more strategic partner with our clients to give them the most value.
KRISTIN: That makes a lot of sense. Shifting gears a bit here because we can’t talk about technology currently without mentioning AI. We’re seeing more customers who are talking about AI and there is a lot of excitement out there but there’s also a lot of uncertainty. Chase, how do you see AI playing a role in healthcare workforce solutions?
CHASE: Absolutely. The buzzword of 2025 that’s for sure. You know, in truth, I think we’re a long way away from AI replacing human work, especially bedside care. But augmenting that work should really be the focus. I’ll give two examples. So, the first would be the idea of using AI tools to help to automate processes to streamline, simplify, and improve the accuracy of documentation, coding, scheduling, and these types of things. And what that really does is free the nurses or the clinicians’ time so that they can focus back on what they want to be doing, which is working with the patient, right? Another great example and probably one of the more exciting aspects where AI has really started to push into space today is in virtual care models. So, remote monitoring or telehealth. Very exciting, and is sort of leading that charge and is a way for organizations to improve care, improve efficiency, take some serious workload and burden off of their bedside nurses that they can really make sure that they’re focusing on the quality of care rather than having to scramble to make it to that number of patients within that amount of time. And there’s a lot of focus and a lot of work that’s being done in organizations like Medical Solutions and more broadly across healthcare systems to really take advantage of what the future of those virtual care models will look like.
KRISTIN: Yeah, a lot of interesting things and a lot of developments that are still on the way. One thing that you said really stuck out to me is that it’s not about replacing people with AI. It’s about using it as a tool with people who know how to use it, who know what to do with it. Before we wrap today, I do want to ask each of you, what is one thing you hope healthcare leaders take away from this year’s survey? And Karin, I’ll have you start.
KARIN: Yeah, I think it’s honestly really the notion that fewer partners is probably the recipes for success and the notion that human interaction still is critical. It’s not just a platform that is self-service. That’s what I would hope healthcare leaders take away and I can certainly share that Medical Solutions Group is driving exactly that human interaction coupled with technology and being a trustful and strategic partner to our clients.
KRISTIN: Perfect. Chase, I’ll ask you the same question.
CHASE: Yeah. One thing that was highlighted in the survey and something that I regularly talk about with organizations is the generational transition of the workforce. Today, we’ve got four generations of clinicians working with patients in healthcare systems and we are just a couple years away from where the fifth generation, Generation Alpha, will be joining that workforce and really seeing the shift in how they work, what values they have, what they prioritize. For organizations to understand those differences in the wide range of generational expectations and how the different generations think about work and want to work. There’s a lot there and to better connect and understand your workforce is to understand the shift and the evolution of what’s happening within the workforce and who is working for you and some of that is touched on the in the survey and I think it’s a conversation that probably isn’t happening enough and for organizations to understand what that generational evolution is about and what it means to the future of their workforce is a very interesting conversation and one that Medical Solutions really values having with our clients.
KRISTIN: Yeah, absolutely. And just another thing that we can help them work through as they continue to face these challenges day after day.
Chase. Karin. I want to thank you both for joining me today and sharing your insights.
CHASE: Thanks so much.
KARIN: Thank you.
KRISITN: It’s clear that building a sustainable workforce isn’t about tech alone or people alone. It’s about partnership and that’s where we show up differently. Thank you to everyone for listening. If you want to dig into the Voices of Care survey results or learn how Medical Solutions can work with your team, visit medicalsolutions.com.
We’ll be back next time with more conversations about what’s next in Healthcare Workforce Solutions. Until then, thanks for tuning in to Healthcare Workforce Unplugged.