Is the Hassle Factor Draining Your Talent?
Is the Hassle Factor Draining Your Talent?
Hassle factors in the workplace cause challenges for staff and physicians – eroding engagement and productivity. Identifying the top hassle factors in your organization can help you find ways to streamline processes and take pressure off your physicians. Hassle factors will never go away, but it’s important to identify them and take steps to reduce as much as possible. Read on to learn more about the hassle factor and what may be casing the most challenges in your organization.
What Does Hassle Really Mean?
When you think of the word hassle, you may associate it with an irritant or a nuisance. But that is only part of the picture. The dictionary definition of the word reveals its more inimical nature; “a heated often protracted argument; a violent skirmish; a state of confusion; an annoying or troublesome concern” (Merriam-Webster). Hassles are more than mere irritants, they have the potential to cause real conflict in your organization.
Defining The Hassle Factors
In the workplace, a hassle factor is anything that gets in the way of performing your job to the best of your abilities. The idea of hassle factors took on a whole new meaning in the medical community when Medicare and insurance paperwork began to pile up and drown physicians in administrative tasks. The Medscape Physician Compensation Report 2018 found that 70% of physicians spend over 10 hours per week on paperwork and administrative tasks. That’s up from last year’s 57%. All of this competes with time spent on patients or home and family life.
Top Hassle Factors
At CTI’s Physician Leadership Institute, we recently conducted a study to determine the top hassle factors threatening healthcare organizations today. The 5 top sources of hassle for physicians were:
- Electronic Health Records (EHR) Systems and Documentation
- Poor or Lacking Communication
- Lack of Clinical Representation in Leadership Roles
- Prioritization of Financial and Productivity Metrics
- Overly Complex Organizational Structure
Hassle Factors Contribute to Physician Burnout
Hassle factors have the potential to sap energy and productivity from your team. When examining the relationship between engagement and burnout, it is clear that increased hassle factors play a role in both issues. The Behavioral Sciences Open Access Journal recently published an article examining the factors that contribute to physician burnout. It found that “loss of autonomy at work, decreased control over the work environment, inefficient use of time due to administrative requirements, and loss of support from colleagues to be the central factors.”
Healthcare organizations are particularly susceptible to mounting hassle factors stemming from regulations, complex systems, processes and procedures. There is no way to completely eliminate hassle factors, but it is vital to identify and address those factors you can control. Pay attention to your staff, have conversations about hassle factors, conduct internal surveys and then look for ways to streamline the organizational processes.
Take our free Hassle Factors assessment to determine what hassle factors may be affecting your physicians and staff.
To learn more about how we can help reduce hassle factors in your organization or about the Hassle Factor Index, contact us online or give us a call at (813) 333-1401.
