Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Solving the staffing puzzle Ft. Saira Ayub
5 Plays4 months ago
The holidays are approaching fast, and we at On Call are getting in the spirit of togetherness with a brand new guest! April and Alicia are joined by long-time colleague and friend Saira Ayub, Senior Director for Staffing Services at Sound Physicians. After nine years at Sound, Saira has learned a thing or two about what makes a great clinical team. Tune in to hear her career and leadership journey, hospital staffing philosophy, and even a few holiday hot takes.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Banter
00:00:00
Speaker
You love football.
00:00:00
Speaker
I love football.
00:00:01
Speaker
April, do you like football?
00:00:03
Speaker
I mean, I like football, but I don't really watch football.
00:00:07
Speaker
So that means no.
00:00:08
Speaker
Okay.
00:00:08
Speaker
Well, you're out of the cool girls club.
00:00:11
Speaker
There's a lot of people in sound that love sports and football.
00:00:14
Speaker
And I always get on calls.
00:00:15
Speaker
They're talking.
00:00:15
Speaker
I'm like, I have no idea what anybody's talking about.
00:00:17
Speaker
This is on call.
00:00:19
Speaker
This would be really cool to just wear scrubs all the time.
00:00:21
Speaker
And you don't have to think about what you're going to wear to work.
00:00:25
Speaker
We're here to answer your questions.
00:00:26
Speaker
We can sit down and discuss them.
00:00:28
Speaker
Wait, I gotta go.
00:00:29
Speaker
I'm on call.
00:00:30
Speaker
Wait, you're on call?
00:00:31
Speaker
I thought I was on call.
Podcast Hosts and Guest Introduction
00:00:35
Speaker
Okay, everybody.
00:00:36
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of On Call with April and Alicia.
00:00:39
Speaker
I'm Alicia.
00:00:40
Speaker
I'm April.
00:00:41
Speaker
I'm Syrah.
00:00:42
Speaker
Hey.
00:00:43
Speaker
We have a guest.
00:00:44
Speaker
We've got a guest.
00:00:45
Speaker
So we've got Syrah Ayyub.
00:00:47
Speaker
She is our senior director of staffing here at Sound Physicians.
00:00:51
Speaker
She's going to tell you all about what she does and why we've got her on our podcast today.
00:00:54
Speaker
But for now, welcome Syrah.
00:00:56
Speaker
Welcome to the call room.
00:00:57
Speaker
Thank you.
00:00:58
Speaker
We're excited to have you.
00:01:00
Speaker
We really are.
00:01:00
Speaker
We just, we're just together a couple of weeks ago and at Halloween.
00:01:05
Speaker
And now we're moving into Thanksgiving.
00:01:07
Speaker
What are you guys doing for Thanksgiving?
Thanksgiving and Wedding Plans
00:01:09
Speaker
We go to my in-laws.
00:01:11
Speaker
They host and we actually spend the night over there.
00:01:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:15
Speaker
We spend the night over there the night before, and then we hang out and have dinner and all the things.
00:01:19
Speaker
So we're excited.
00:01:21
Speaker
And your in-laws in Maryland, right?
00:01:24
Speaker
Yes.
00:01:24
Speaker
They're like 25 minutes from us.
00:01:26
Speaker
So they're not far.
00:01:27
Speaker
And like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of miles away in Dallas, Texas is Syrah.
00:01:32
Speaker
So what are you guys doing for some students?
00:01:34
Speaker
Well, I have a busy week, a busy couple of weeks, actually.
00:01:37
Speaker
On Thursday morning, I fly out to Puerto Vallarta.
00:01:40
Speaker
My cousin's getting married.
00:01:42
Speaker
So it's going to be- Oh, nice.
00:01:43
Speaker
Yeah, he's letting you there.
00:01:45
Speaker
I'm good to know your cousin and I are like really good friends.
00:01:47
Speaker
Yes, please go.
00:01:50
Speaker
I would love to be your plus one or two.
00:01:52
Speaker
I don't care.
00:01:54
Speaker
It's going to be a good time.
00:01:55
Speaker
I'm really, really excited.
00:01:57
Speaker
I don't know if anyone, if you guys have attended Indian weddings, but they are absolute blast.
00:02:02
Speaker
There's things going on every night while we're there.
00:02:04
Speaker
Super excited to celebrate with her.
00:02:07
Speaker
And the next week, I'll be with my sister who lives also in the Dallas, Fort Worth area.
00:02:13
Speaker
My mom lives here and my niece is a nephew.
00:02:15
Speaker
And we'll just get together, cook, hang out, watch football all day.
00:02:20
Speaker
That's my love language.
00:02:22
Speaker
That's right.
00:02:22
Speaker
We talk football.
00:02:25
Speaker
You love football.
00:02:26
Speaker
I love football.
00:02:27
Speaker
April, do you like football?
00:02:29
Speaker
I mean, I like football, but I don't really watch football.
00:02:32
Speaker
So that means no.
00:02:33
Speaker
Okay.
00:02:33
Speaker
Well, you're out of the cool girls club.
00:02:37
Speaker
There's a lot of people in sound that love sports and football.
00:02:39
Speaker
And I always get on calls.
00:02:40
Speaker
They're talking.
00:02:41
Speaker
I'm like, I have no idea what anybody's talking about.
00:02:42
Speaker
You're like, yes, they got a three pointer right now.
00:02:46
Speaker
I mean, I know the game.
00:02:47
Speaker
I just don't like, I grew up watching it, but the Buffalo bills, they grew up watching, but Hey, they had a good game this weekend.
00:02:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:56
Speaker
Pretty good.
00:02:57
Speaker
But I wanted to just say, Sarah, I've never been to an Indian wedding, but I have heard,
00:03:02
Speaker
so much.
00:03:03
Speaker
And I've, you know, there's been some shows like reality shows over the years that just show like all the ceremonial stuff that happens every day.
00:03:10
Speaker
Like that looks like a blast.
00:03:11
Speaker
You'll have to send us pictures because I would love to go.
00:03:14
Speaker
But again, I'll be your plus two or three or however many people you're allowed to bring.
00:03:20
Speaker
I'm coming.
00:03:21
Speaker
Bring me.
Office Humor and Holiday Traditions
00:03:23
Speaker
and i bet the weather is good too so here we are oh speaking of weather hey guys just so you know i officially have a tv in my office with the weather channel on oh my goodness just so you know so when you're on call it's distracted we'll know that you're watching the weather instead of no i actually have to turn it off i turned it off when i was setting up in here because i was like there's some stuff going on in california and i really want to see what it is
00:03:45
Speaker
But I know that we owe it to Saira to be better podcast hosts than that.
00:03:48
Speaker
Oh, my goodness.
00:03:49
Speaker
Saira, only because of you.
00:03:50
Speaker
Yes, we do.
00:03:51
Speaker
I'm not distracting myself with TV.
00:03:54
Speaker
Okay, but we do.
00:03:55
Speaker
We've got a short amount of time and a lot of information to cover.
00:03:58
Speaker
So, first of all, we did just mention we've got Saira hanging out with us in the call room today.
00:04:04
Speaker
Saira is our senior director of staffing.
00:04:08
Speaker
Saira, why don't you...
00:04:10
Speaker
I'm going to have you tell the audience a little bit about yourself.
00:04:12
Speaker
Okay.
00:04:13
Speaker
But what I want to do first is a little quick session, rapid fire, break the ice, April.
00:04:19
Speaker
When you think we just hit her with, let's just hit her with two questions, warm her up, and then we're going to have her tell her story.
00:04:26
Speaker
All right.
00:04:27
Speaker
Sounds good.
00:04:28
Speaker
All right.
00:04:28
Speaker
You go first.
00:04:29
Speaker
All right.
00:04:30
Speaker
I'm going to break tradition.
00:04:31
Speaker
We're not going food this time.
00:04:32
Speaker
No food.
00:04:34
Speaker
I know.
00:04:35
Speaker
But the holidays are coming.
00:04:36
Speaker
It's my favorite time of the year, especially with my kids.
00:04:39
Speaker
So, Sarah, what is your favorite holiday tradition?
00:04:41
Speaker
Can be any holiday that's coming up.
00:04:44
Speaker
Okay.
00:04:45
Speaker
Well, I really, I know I feel like this is probably the popular choice, but I do love Christmas.
00:04:52
Speaker
I loved it as a kid.
00:04:53
Speaker
My mom would make it really, really special for me and my sister.
00:04:56
Speaker
And my birthday is in December, so I still have my birthday.
00:04:59
Speaker
and then two weeks after it was Christmas.
00:05:01
Speaker
So it was just a festive time.
00:05:03
Speaker
We got a lot of dedicated time to spend with the family and friends.
00:05:07
Speaker
And now that I have nieces and nephews, celebrating Christmas morning with them is just very, very magical.
00:05:15
Speaker
I can see why my mom enjoyed it, just seeing their reactions and their excitement and spending that time and the entire day together.
00:05:23
Speaker
It's just, yeah, it has to still be my favorite holiday, even as an adult.
00:05:28
Speaker
Oh, I love that.
00:05:29
Speaker
I know my kids love it.
00:05:30
Speaker
We're fully decorated for Christmas already, by the way.
00:05:33
Speaker
Well, I tell you, we, we got yelled at last year, right, Julie, about this, but I have to say same.
00:05:40
Speaker
And I took advantage this last weekend of getting the lights up because it, I don't know if what your weather is April.
00:05:47
Speaker
Um, but it was like sixties and then it, the bottomed out on us.
00:05:51
Speaker
So I at least got stuff outside.
00:05:53
Speaker
I don't care anymore.
00:05:54
Speaker
I just like looking forward to holidays is nice.
00:05:56
Speaker
OK, all right.
00:05:58
Speaker
My question for you, Sarah, I'm going to go along the same theme, but we asked this one last year and I like this one a lot.
00:06:04
Speaker
What is your favorite holiday movie?
00:06:08
Speaker
Any holiday, but you can go Halloween to New Year's.
00:06:13
Speaker
Okay.
00:06:15
Speaker
And April, think, because I'm going to ask you and see if you remember what you said last year.
00:06:19
Speaker
Look, there's so many good holiday movies, but the one that's coming into my mind is a Halloween movie that I just love and have to watch every year, and it's the first Hocus Pocus.
00:06:31
Speaker
Like, that was one of my favorite movies.
00:06:34
Speaker
Was that Bette Midler?
00:06:36
Speaker
Do I'm sorry?
00:06:37
Speaker
Is Bette Mittler?
00:06:38
Speaker
Was she?
00:06:38
Speaker
Yes.
00:06:39
Speaker
And Sarah Jessica Parker.
00:06:41
Speaker
Yes, it was.
00:06:42
Speaker
It was just so good when it came out and I have to watch it every year.
00:06:45
Speaker
And this year, the staffing services team, we did Spirit Week for Halloween.
00:06:50
Speaker
So every day we had a dress up.
00:06:54
Speaker
And so one of the themes was movies.
00:06:57
Speaker
And so we got to do Hocus Pocus and it was just really, really fun.
00:07:00
Speaker
We had a
00:07:01
Speaker
One of our anesthesia team leads, Lauren Walker, she lives next door to a cemetery.
00:07:07
Speaker
So she dressed up as the guy, I think his name's Billy, that is in the cemetery.
00:07:13
Speaker
And she went and took, we asked her to go take the picture there with a group photo.
00:07:17
Speaker
So it's posted on Vitals.
00:07:19
Speaker
If you guys have a chance to go check it out, I definitely recommend it because you'll wonder, like, is that real behind her in
00:07:25
Speaker
Yes, it's real.
00:07:26
Speaker
Those are tombstones.
00:07:28
Speaker
So we all got in this fair and it was fun to just kind of relip the magic of Hocus Pocus.
00:07:36
Speaker
I saw some of these, Saira.
00:07:37
Speaker
Naomi, who works with us.
00:07:40
Speaker
For those that don't know, I probably have never said Naomi's name on this podcast yet.
00:07:43
Speaker
You're welcome, Naomi.
00:07:46
Speaker
Naomi's my brains for the ambassadors.
00:07:48
Speaker
But she was sharing these with me while you guys were doing it.
00:07:51
Speaker
You guys had different themes.
00:07:53
Speaker
You had Mean Girls on Wednesday.
00:07:55
Speaker
We were pink.
00:07:57
Speaker
It was so creative.
00:07:59
Speaker
April, we definitely need to show these to you.
00:08:01
Speaker
it was it was really cool i wish i wish we could get our clinical teams together that way and have that kind of fun um yeah but like major kudos to how you manage that team because that's i don't know if that i would have loved a job like that
00:08:14
Speaker
It was fun.
00:08:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:15
Speaker
And it's virtual, which I thought a lot easier because you just have to, you know, dress up half yourself and your background.
00:08:23
Speaker
And so I felt like I could participate every day with a new theme and our staffing team really got into it with some competition going on.
00:08:30
Speaker
So it was, it was a fun week and just something to break up the day to day.
00:08:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:35
Speaker
I love that.
00:08:36
Speaker
April.
00:08:37
Speaker
So your hocus pocus, Sarah, April, what's, what's your, do you remember your favorite holiday movie?
00:08:44
Speaker
Well, of course.
00:08:45
Speaker
I mean, I don't know what I said last year, but one of them that I love that I watch every year is Love Actually, which is what I said.
00:08:51
Speaker
I just, yeah.
00:08:54
Speaker
But I also love Elf.
00:08:56
Speaker
The kids love Elf.
00:08:57
Speaker
Oh, you sit on the throne of lies.
00:09:00
Speaker
And then the original Santa Claus is my other one.
00:09:03
Speaker
That would be my favorite Christmas.
00:09:06
Speaker
I forgot about that one.
00:09:08
Speaker
I love that one, too.
00:09:09
Speaker
Well, there's like three or four of them, but yeah, but I love the original one.
00:09:13
Speaker
Yeah, no, I that one was that.
00:09:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:16
Speaker
Oh, my gosh.
00:09:17
Speaker
I completely forgot about that one.
00:09:19
Speaker
Huh, I'm just a Grinch.
00:09:20
Speaker
I like the original animation of the Grinch.
00:09:23
Speaker
I watch it like on repeat.
00:09:24
Speaker
I mean, that's a classic too.
00:09:25
Speaker
Yeah, it is.
00:09:26
Speaker
I just love, and I love the narration.
00:09:29
Speaker
I think it's Boris.
00:09:30
Speaker
I can't remember his last name, but just his voice is so rich.
00:09:34
Speaker
I just love it.
Career Journey and Roles
00:09:35
Speaker
so anyway all right for sure we before we again we'll talk we'll talk weather and holidays food all day long but we've got some other things to talk about go ahead abrile you were going to mention something before we mention we before we get started with syra i do want to do a shout out because last week was nurse practitioner week so the fall is like so fun because we have so many weeks dedicated to our advanced practice providers and last week was for our nurse practitioners so to all of you out there thank you for all
00:10:01
Speaker
that you do every day.
00:10:02
Speaker
You make a huge impact in the lives of others.
00:10:05
Speaker
And we really appreciate everything you do.
00:10:08
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:10:09
Speaker
And speaking of impact to the lives of others, we have Saira here for a very specific reason.
00:10:15
Speaker
We were talking about the holidays, all this wonderful stuff.
00:10:18
Speaker
movies and food, but a lot of people get sick at this time of the year.
00:10:22
Speaker
This is a time where our hospitals are starting to bust at the seams a bit and our staffs are stretched.
00:10:27
Speaker
Patients are frustrated.
00:10:28
Speaker
Staff members are frustrated.
00:10:29
Speaker
And Saira does a pretty unique thing, at least to me, the more I learn about what she and her team do for sound and for our patients.
00:10:38
Speaker
So I just wanted to introduce Saira.
00:10:39
Speaker
Saira, why don't you tell us a little bit about you, your journey, how you got to where you are, and then we'll hammer you with some wonderful questions about your work.
00:10:48
Speaker
Thank you, Alicia.
00:10:51
Speaker
So I came to sound, it feels like a quick but long nine years ago and one of the best decisions that I've ever made.
00:11:00
Speaker
I'm so thankful to be a part of Sound Physicians.
00:11:05
Speaker
I started out
00:11:07
Speaker
at an early age, knowing that I was just very independent and ready to get into the workforce and kind of do my own thing, start earning money, you know, deciding what I want to spend it on.
00:11:18
Speaker
And reflecting back now, I'm like, I wish I would have slowed down a little bit because I would have plenty of time.
00:11:25
Speaker
to be a part of the workforce, but that's where I was when I was 16.
00:11:29
Speaker
So started in retail, you know, tried different things, was in retail for a very, very long time.
00:11:36
Speaker
Retail, as you guys know, brings out the best and worst in people.
00:11:41
Speaker
Yeah, I did feel like I learned a lot and just really, you know, I enjoyed it.
00:11:48
Speaker
I think the weekends and holidays and Black Friday working and all the hustle and bustle got a little bit too much where I was like, I want to try something new.
00:11:57
Speaker
Right.
00:11:57
Speaker
And I think I started putting arm pads and knee pads and helmets on.
00:12:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:04
Speaker
I was like, you know, I want to try something else new.
00:12:06
Speaker
And I think that's what being young is about is really trying to figure out like, where is your passion, right?
00:12:11
Speaker
I don't think that it's fair for anybody at 16 to know what they want to be when they grow up.
00:12:17
Speaker
I feel like I still ask myself that question every day as I'm
00:12:21
Speaker
Looking to see, you know, where do I want to go in my career?
00:12:25
Speaker
So I think that really the best way to identify what your passion is, is to try different things and figure out what you like and what you don't like.
00:12:33
Speaker
So spent a little time in retail and then I moved into working for.
00:12:38
Speaker
DeVita Pharmacy and DeVita Pharmacy is a pharmacy that provides for DeVita dialysis patients.
00:12:45
Speaker
So I worked in the patient enrollment department.
00:12:48
Speaker
I got to work directly with patients and the goal of the pharmacy was to enroll them
00:12:54
Speaker
into the pharmacy so they could get their medications while they were getting dialysis or shipped directly to their home.
00:13:01
Speaker
Because for those patients, the access or transportation to get to a pharmacy wasn't always available.
00:13:09
Speaker
And so, you know, they would have transportation to dialysis.
00:13:12
Speaker
So it just helped to make sure that they adhere to their treatment plan by making sure that they got their medication.
00:13:21
Speaker
I really enjoyed that.
00:13:23
Speaker
There was a new role within DaVita Pharmacy with account management where I got to support the DaVita dialysis facilities and really educate them on the pharmacy and the importance of enrolling our patients into the pharmacy.
00:13:37
Speaker
So I enjoyed that.
00:13:38
Speaker
That was my first exposure to the medical field.
00:13:42
Speaker
And I just, I really, really enjoyed being able to help people and not be a medical professional.
00:13:49
Speaker
Unfortunately, the
00:13:50
Speaker
Sight of blood is not something that I tolerate very well.
00:13:55
Speaker
So kudos to both of you guys and everybody that treats our patients.
00:13:59
Speaker
So it's not something that I could do, but I knew that I wanted to help.
00:14:02
Speaker
I think people say that, Syrah.
00:14:04
Speaker
You'd be surprised.
00:14:06
Speaker
what you can tell yeah but we'd also be surprised on how much she hates it yeah true um major props and kudos to all of our health care professionals that care for us um just so well and they do it so selflessly so i'm always in awe of um our health care professionals and
00:14:27
Speaker
So I was with DeVita for a little bit, and then I was like, okay, time to start something new.
00:14:31
Speaker
So I went into account management with a locums company, which if you guys don't know what locums is, it's a contractor that works with an agency.
00:14:40
Speaker
So basically a staffing agency, and they work with different organizations like sound, like urgent cares, it could be anything.
00:14:49
Speaker
specialty, you name it, there's a staffing agency out there that helps find clinicians when there is a need.
00:14:56
Speaker
And that agency works kind of like, you know, like I said, a staffing agency.
00:15:00
Speaker
And so I worked there.
00:15:01
Speaker
I learned about the locums world, really enjoyed it where I worked.
00:15:05
Speaker
It was it was very recruiting, recruiting based and sales.
00:15:10
Speaker
And my passion, what I found that I enjoyed was the account manager and the customer service and building the relationship with the facilities that we served.
00:15:20
Speaker
And so one of my colleagues that worked with me at the Locums Company just started in a staffing account manager at Sound Physicians.
00:15:29
Speaker
And she referred me.
00:15:30
Speaker
She thought I would really enjoy the role.
00:15:33
Speaker
I interviewed and came on nine years ago and worked as a staffing account manager and supported a few of our very special sites in New York, which will always hold a place in my heart.
00:15:44
Speaker
It was an old TA team there.
00:15:46
Speaker
And that's where I really learned how to do it.
00:15:48
Speaker
about staffing and got you know understood the importance of it the why how we work with the organization and you know as an individual contributor in that role i really really enjoyed it um and then when i saw an opportunity to be a team lead and a manager i was like yes that's what i want to do i want to i want to lead this department i know the good things that we're doing here i have
00:16:15
Speaker
an amazing leader, and Kevin Lunsford, who's still our senior staffing manager.
00:16:20
Speaker
And we talked about my goals and my development and the opportunity that was there for me to really develop into a leader.
00:16:27
Speaker
And then when the time came, I interviewed and team lead was my first leader position here at Sound Physicians.
00:16:34
Speaker
I will tell anybody that asks, it's the hardest position that I've had.
00:16:39
Speaker
It's really learning how to transition from an individual contributor into a leader
00:16:45
Speaker
learning how to work through others, right?
00:16:48
Speaker
And learning how, okay, I was, you know, a peer and now I'm a leader.
00:16:53
Speaker
So how does that dynamic change and how do I build a relationship, support the team, and then also provide the same development that was given to me, right?
00:17:02
Speaker
To grow, to have a space to grow into the position and career that I wanted at Sound Physicians.
00:17:08
Speaker
So team lead was the most fulfilling and the toughest position that I held, right?
Leadership and Team Challenges
00:17:14
Speaker
And then I moved into a manager role of the A-team, and that was in 2020.
00:17:19
Speaker
We had the A-team, and we also had a new service line, anesthesia.
00:17:22
Speaker
So I get to be a part of getting that off the ground, which anesthesia is super interesting.
00:17:30
Speaker
I love the service line, love learning about it and continuing to grow anesthesia with
00:17:35
Speaker
sound.
00:17:37
Speaker
And so I was in a manager position for about a year and a half.
00:17:40
Speaker
And then the director position came available.
00:17:44
Speaker
And I honestly had to think about it.
00:17:47
Speaker
I really, really enjoyed being a manager.
00:17:50
Speaker
I enjoyed supporting the team, working with the individual contributors and my team lead.
00:17:57
Speaker
And I know as you move up in leadership, right, you get a little bit removed from the team as you're working with your managers and your leaders.
00:18:05
Speaker
And
00:18:05
Speaker
other leaders in the organization to make the department as a whole better.
00:18:09
Speaker
And when I weighed out, you know, the pros and cons and what I wanted to do with my life when I grew up, I want to make an impact and I continue with that.
00:18:19
Speaker
I want to make the biggest impact that I can to sound decisions.
00:18:24
Speaker
And so I accepted the director role and haven't looked back.
00:18:28
Speaker
I've
00:18:29
Speaker
Absolutely enjoyed learning how to be a director.
00:18:33
Speaker
One of the things that I was honestly a little scared of was spreadsheets and numbers.
00:18:39
Speaker
That was not my jam.
00:18:41
Speaker
Definitely not something that I was like, oh, I'm going to love doing all of the numbers and the data and the budgeting.
00:18:48
Speaker
Over the years, it's something that now I enjoy.
00:18:52
Speaker
Like I really, really love looking at the data.
00:18:55
Speaker
I love data analytics, what the story of the data tells, what, you know, the numbers are just never, right?
00:19:01
Speaker
You really have to know what the story is.
00:19:03
Speaker
I was gonna say like, once you understand it, you love it.
00:19:06
Speaker
But when you don't, you're like hogwash.
00:19:08
Speaker
Yeah, so I surprised myself with that.
00:19:11
Speaker
And I thought it was something that I was like, Oh, I don't want to do this all the time.
00:19:14
Speaker
And I don't have to do it all the time, fortunately.
00:19:16
Speaker
But what I do, I really, really enjoy it.
00:19:19
Speaker
So that was something that you know, until you really challenge yourself and you put yourself out of that comfort zone, you don't
00:19:24
Speaker
Again, you don't really know what you don't know.
00:19:27
Speaker
You have to try things in order to figure out what really fills your bucket.
00:19:31
Speaker
So I thought that was interesting.
00:19:33
Speaker
And then last year, we also acquired the soundboard team, which is the onboarding team.
00:19:41
Speaker
They work with our incoming W2s and ambassadors to give them the best onboarding experience possible.
00:19:47
Speaker
Because as you guys know, you only get one chance to make a good first impression.
00:19:52
Speaker
So the onboarding team is now under my umbrella staffing services.
00:19:57
Speaker
And then we also, the Echo travel team joined us, Echo and Ambassador, and they do all the travel accommodations to make sure that our traveling clinicians have everything they need so they're not worried about a hotel, a flight, a rental car, everything's booked for them.
00:20:13
Speaker
And they're really focused on getting to the site and providing exceptional patient care.
00:20:19
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome.
00:20:20
Speaker
That's a mouthful.
00:20:20
Speaker
Two things I want to point
Staffing Complexities and Impact
00:20:22
Speaker
out.
00:20:22
Speaker
A-Team, April's old stomping grounds.
00:20:26
Speaker
That's right.
00:20:27
Speaker
It was named after April, affectionately, the A-Team.
00:20:30
Speaker
If only that were true.
00:20:32
Speaker
But I was one of the OGs in the A-Team.
00:20:34
Speaker
We've got to give Kevin a shout out.
00:20:37
Speaker
Sorry, April.
00:20:38
Speaker
I cut you off.
00:20:38
Speaker
Go ahead.
00:20:39
Speaker
No, I was going to say, there's not many of us left, but there are still some around.
00:20:43
Speaker
No, the OGs.
00:20:45
Speaker
So, yep.
00:20:46
Speaker
Well, you started it, you ended it, I guess, April.
00:20:49
Speaker
And then I just wanted to say, sorry, we got to give Kevin a plug because I know we're going to hear a lot of crap about Kevin not being on the podcast first.
00:20:59
Speaker
But hi, Kevin.
00:21:01
Speaker
And that's all I wanted to say.
00:21:02
Speaker
Sorry, Kevin.
00:21:04
Speaker
He is a huge fan.
00:21:06
Speaker
He's a huge fan of you guys.
00:21:08
Speaker
I already heard from a couple of people like he is jealous.
00:21:13
Speaker
We're going to find something for Kevin to do.
00:21:17
Speaker
But for this moment, this is Kevin's corner here.
00:21:19
Speaker
Welcome to the podcast.
00:21:21
Speaker
Okay.
00:21:24
Speaker
The part that stuck out to me, Sarah, about your intro was the data piece because as a clinician, like that wasn't not my forte either, but it's funny because actually Alicia and I bonded.
00:21:33
Speaker
We've talked about this in previous episodes.
00:21:35
Speaker
We bonded over data that we had to, there was this program that we were implementing and it involved a lot of data, like a lot of productivity data.
00:21:43
Speaker
And so I flew out to her.
00:21:45
Speaker
Yeah, the annual data.
00:21:46
Speaker
I flew out to her house and we spent, what, three days, like, and we would get up at like 630 in the morning.
00:21:52
Speaker
Alicia would do the coffee run.
00:21:54
Speaker
I would start the data and we would work all day and we would just blare music and sing and run data for three days straight.
00:22:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:00
Speaker
So that's how we go.
00:22:01
Speaker
Like we go to dinner.
00:22:02
Speaker
We like cheers to each other at eight o'clock at night while we were still working.
00:22:07
Speaker
And it was that was but data.
00:22:09
Speaker
April is the one that taught me data.
00:22:11
Speaker
So big eye roll when I first was like Excel sheet.
00:22:14
Speaker
I got to make up.
00:22:15
Speaker
I had to make a graph from an Excel sheet.
00:22:18
Speaker
I was freaking out.
00:22:19
Speaker
I was like, I'm kind of glad chat GPT wasn't around when I started because I don't think I'd learned a skill.
00:22:24
Speaker
I'd have just been like, Chad, could you make this for me?
00:22:27
Speaker
Can you figure this out?
00:22:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:28
Speaker
But now if you see in Sunday, the rest of problem, we'll dig in to that data.
00:22:32
Speaker
So, uh, yeah, we love it.
00:22:33
Speaker
And it does tell a story.
00:22:34
Speaker
Once you do, you kind of do feel like you're on top of the world.
00:22:37
Speaker
So that was a great opening.
00:22:39
Speaker
Yes.
00:22:40
Speaker
All right.
00:22:40
Speaker
Well, we're going to start with our questions.
00:22:42
Speaker
We'll make it as painless as possible.
00:22:43
Speaker
So Sarah, um, you know, in your role in such a large, diverse medical group, how would you describe what good staffing looks like in a medical group and why is that so essential to patient care?
00:22:55
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:22:56
Speaker
So, you know, April, I think when people think of good staffing, they think of, okay, the schedule is full and that means that we're staffed, right?
00:23:06
Speaker
And that is, we want to make sure that the schedule is full to provide exceptional care to our patients that are treated at our hospitals.
00:23:13
Speaker
And we want to make sure each person that walks through the door has accessibility to care.
00:23:18
Speaker
So that sounds easy, right?
00:23:20
Speaker
But as you guys know, that's not always the case.
00:23:25
Speaker
Staffing is like a puzzle.
00:23:26
Speaker
Like you may have all the pieces to put it together and that's the best case scenario.
00:23:30
Speaker
But other times there's a few missing pieces and you have to work with those pieces to figure out how can we make this puzzle work, right?
00:23:38
Speaker
So it's so much more in my mind than just the schedule.
00:23:42
Speaker
It really, staffing encompasses so much more and it
00:23:46
Speaker
It starts with working with our perm recruiters, right?
00:23:48
Speaker
Because we want to make sure that we have the clinicians there.
00:23:51
Speaker
So we're very reliant on our perm team and Carl's team to make sure that the clinicians are coming in in order for us to build a schedule.
00:23:59
Speaker
And at times, you know, sometimes the perm recruiter can sign a clinician that may not graduate till next year.
00:24:05
Speaker
And so while we're in that space of a year, we have to find somebody temporarily that's going to fill that schedule.
00:24:13
Speaker
And so that's where our ECHO team comes in.
00:24:15
Speaker
And our ECHO team is our internal locums agency.
00:24:19
Speaker
So they're gonna work to find somebody to come in and work as a locums for us.
00:24:24
Speaker
We work with ECHO.
00:24:25
Speaker
And then there's times when it's just, we have a
00:24:28
Speaker
a very, very big need.
00:24:30
Speaker
We may be down a significant amount of FTEs at the site and we need more resources.
00:24:36
Speaker
And so then we work with our, what we call third party vendors.
00:24:40
Speaker
And so those are the companies that function as a staffing agency.
00:24:44
Speaker
We're contracted with them.
00:24:45
Speaker
The staffing team manages those contracts and the relationships.
00:24:49
Speaker
And we also will use them to help us fill the need because our ultimate goal is we need to make sure that the clinicians are there to be able to treat our patients.
00:25:00
Speaker
So now we have the clinicians, right?
00:25:02
Speaker
Okay.
00:25:02
Speaker
We've worked with all the different departments to get the clinicians.
00:25:06
Speaker
Then onboarding them is going to be the second part in that, right?
00:25:10
Speaker
We want to make sure that they have a seamless, positive onboarding experience.
00:25:15
Speaker
And with that, we're partnering with the privileging team.
00:25:18
Speaker
Amanda's team has a big part in the onboarding because getting privileges is a task in itself.
00:25:24
Speaker
It's a process.
00:25:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:26
Speaker
Most of our clinicians, as you mentioned data, April, I'm surprised you didn't say paperwork, but they are not a huge fan of paperwork.
00:25:34
Speaker
So it's coordinating all of those pieces and working with our medical staff office at the hospital.
00:25:40
Speaker
So our privileging team does a fantastic job of that work, making it again as easy for the clinician as possible.
00:25:48
Speaker
And then making sure we have those privileges before the first scheduled start date.
00:25:52
Speaker
That's always very important because we have someone on the schedule.
00:25:55
Speaker
And if all the pieces don't fall in place, and for some reason, if privileges aren't granted before that first scheduled shift, then we're in this spot where we're having to remove them off the schedule and scramble for trying to find coverage, which is not ideal.
00:26:11
Speaker
We want to
00:26:12
Speaker
have the schedule out and have it filled.
00:26:14
Speaker
So that's very, very important.
00:26:16
Speaker
And then for those that are traveling in, we have to make sure that they have the travel accommodations because again, we can put them on the schedule and that's great, but we got to have a way of making sure they get there.
00:26:27
Speaker
And our travel team did the fantastic job of booking those in advance, booking any urgent travel that comes in while still maintaining parameters and goals on cost so that we're
00:26:38
Speaker
you know, finding the most safe solution for the clinician, but also the most cost effective option for sound as well.
00:26:46
Speaker
And then I want to say that the PMTs and the medical directors play a huge part in making sure that orientation is also smooth, right?
00:26:56
Speaker
Because our goal is to retain all of our clinicians.
00:27:00
Speaker
As I just kind of outlined, there's many, many departments that play, and I may have even missed a few, but
00:27:06
Speaker
may play a part in the onboarding experience and bringing them to the site and keeping them to the site is what we all, our goal is, you know, all of us want to obtain that goal.
00:27:17
Speaker
So we have to work together and that takes, that takes all of us.
00:27:21
Speaker
Yeah, sorry.
00:27:22
Speaker
I think something important to point out here for those, I mean, we've got a base of listeners that are internal or internal to sound than external as well.
00:27:30
Speaker
But for context, we're not talking about 10 programs, right?
00:27:34
Speaker
That you guys are looking at, or I guess you're looking at an excessive 400 plus right across the organization, different service lines.
00:27:42
Speaker
different gaps and barriers and staffing.
00:27:45
Speaker
So this isn't small scale, one or two hospitals.
00:27:49
Speaker
And I think that's really important to point out when you think about the matrix relationships that exist that also have to get that clinician to that bedside at the time.
00:27:58
Speaker
So I just didn't want to make sure you guys get the recognition.
00:28:02
Speaker
It's not as easy as, you know, plug and playing on just a couple of sites.
00:28:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:08
Speaker
Yes, good point.
00:28:09
Speaker
Yes, we do.
00:28:09
Speaker
Right now, the staffing team supports RHM, hospital medicine, emergency medicine, anesthesia, and tele-HM.
00:28:19
Speaker
Yeah, all of it.
00:28:20
Speaker
Yeah, and each service line is different, right?
00:28:24
Speaker
So it's really learning the...
00:28:26
Speaker
differences between the service lines and how we do that is we partner with our medical directors, our regional operators, and really, you know, learn each side is different and unique and learn, you know, how those differences are come into play and how we can support each other with the schedule.
00:28:45
Speaker
So, and like, so I'll piggyback off of that.
00:28:47
Speaker
When we're talking about the great work that you guys are doing for all of these sites, we want all of our sites well-staffed.
00:28:53
Speaker
I'd love to know what does well-staff mean for you and what does it mean for our clinicians that are on the ground?
00:29:02
Speaker
How does it affect team morale, communication, all of those things that can come with inadequate staffing or being well-staffed?
00:29:11
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:29:12
Speaker
So I'm going to start with the first part of it is how do we get to well-staffed, right?
00:29:18
Speaker
Because there's a process there.
00:29:20
Speaker
And it starts with our schedules, as I mentioned.
00:29:23
Speaker
But our goal is to have the schedule out 90 to 120 days in advance.
00:29:28
Speaker
So that is an expectation.
00:29:30
Speaker
That's something that my team works towards because we want to make sure that the schedule is out because we'll put our W-2s, our perm clinicians have contractual obligations on the schedule first for their contracted shifts, and then we'll work through any
00:29:46
Speaker
PRNs, Moonlighting, Ambassadors, make sure we put all those pieces of the puzzle on the schedule first, right?
00:29:54
Speaker
And so once you get all your full-time clinicians, part-time, any PRNs, then you can really look to see what are the gaps if you have 120 days to fill them.
00:30:04
Speaker
So once the schedule is completed with those groups of labor, we're publishing it out.
00:30:11
Speaker
That way everyone in the organization can now see what the schedule looks like, including the clinicians, because it's very important for them to understand when they're working in advance, that way they can also make their plans and accommodate their family life, work-life balance, all of those things.
00:30:27
Speaker
So we wanna make sure the schedule's out in advance, 90 and 120 days.
00:30:32
Speaker
Then we'll go to our preferred temp labor type, which is always going to be ECHO, and start filling in the gap with their schedule.
00:30:39
Speaker
And then if we have to, we'll go to our third party.
00:30:42
Speaker
Something I want to point out about locums is that they're always booking 90 to 120 days in advance.
00:30:48
Speaker
So if we want to secure our temp staff to the schedules where we've identified we're going to have a need, we want to also be doing that in advance.
00:30:57
Speaker
Otherwise, when we go to them, if we're going to them 30 days out or 60 days out, the likelihood of
00:31:03
Speaker
that technician or that locum having availability becomes slimmer and slimmer.
00:31:09
Speaker
And then you guys know we start getting into, okay, we have some urgent open shifts and we need help and we're desperate.
00:31:17
Speaker
And unfortunately at that time,
00:31:19
Speaker
we lose some of the leverage in filling the shifts because it's a supply and demand, right?
00:31:23
Speaker
And so when there's lots of shifts open, that becomes a little bit harder because our clinicians know that we need them.
00:31:32
Speaker
So we wanna try to get it out in advance and that way we really have a chance of filling the schedule.
00:31:37
Speaker
And then there's still gonna be emergencies that pop up and we can tackle those as they come versus having more gaps in the schedule long-term.
00:31:47
Speaker
The effect on patient care, I think it's very important to note that for clinicians, when we don't have enough clinicians on site for the amount of patients that are there, it means that each clinician is going to have a higher patient caseload, right?
00:32:07
Speaker
Right.
00:32:07
Speaker
than when we have enough staff there.
00:32:10
Speaker
So when you think about that, and I related to business colleagues, and when we have, you know, a lot of emails or we have meetings every day and we have projects that we're working on and we just have so many tasks that, you know, are not able or feasible to get done in your workday, you don't,
00:32:28
Speaker
human tendencies start to rush through them, right?
00:32:31
Speaker
And you don't have as much attention to give to each task because you're trying to get to the next one.
00:32:37
Speaker
And when I relate that to a clinician, that's a patient on the other end of that.
00:32:43
Speaker
And so, you know, they're,
00:32:45
Speaker
Naturally, trying to see every patient because every patient does deserve the care.
00:32:50
Speaker
But when we don't have adequate staff, they have less time with each patient.
00:32:55
Speaker
And, you know, one of our goals is to make sure that each of our patients have.
00:33:00
Speaker
that accessibility to care and that our clinicians have the time to spend with each of the patients.
00:33:06
Speaker
So I think that's the downstream effect when we don't have enough staff.
00:33:13
Speaker
It's the clinicians, the burnout, they're having to rush, they're not giving the quality of care, the standards that they live to, and then the patient might feel some of that rush while they're being treated.
00:33:27
Speaker
And that's definitely not ideal.
00:33:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:32
Speaker
I mean, I think too, just, you know, to Alicia's point in terms of team morale and stuff, like I think also not only the impact on the patients, but then just the team itself, like if you're short staffed, you know, you're.
00:33:44
Speaker
you're stressed, right?
00:33:44
Speaker
Like you're stressed and you're overwhelmed.
00:33:46
Speaker
And so.
00:33:46
Speaker
Yeah, we talked about this before.
00:33:49
Speaker
The patient's overwhelmed too.
00:33:51
Speaker
So everybody's, everyone in the situation's overwhelmed.
00:33:54
Speaker
And I think respectively, they all are.
00:33:58
Speaker
But yes, it is a, it's a challenging position, Syrah.
00:34:02
Speaker
We've been there.
00:34:03
Speaker
I've definitely been there understaffed at times and it's not great.
00:34:10
Speaker
So thank you.
00:34:10
Speaker
Obviously, thank you for what you do there because
00:34:14
Speaker
You make our lives a lot easier.
00:34:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:17
Speaker
And I have to give this to our clinicians because when we get in those situations where there's a flight canceled or a sick family member or the doctor themselves or clinician themselves is sick, it's really important.
00:34:32
Speaker
about the team coming together and that takes staffing the medical director everybody that's credentialed at the site to come together and understand the impact of when that clinician is not there and many times i've seen clinicians selfishly just give up their vacation time their free time their family time to just support you know sound support the site support the patients and understanding that impact and i
00:34:59
Speaker
am always in awe and just have so much gratitude for our clinicians that are boots on the ground that make sure our patients receive that level of care.
00:35:08
Speaker
Yep.
00:35:09
Speaker
We do have great teams that step in when they need to.
00:35:11
Speaker
I think that's why they do it because we do it for each other.
00:35:14
Speaker
You build that culture.
00:35:15
Speaker
I was just thinking about that when she said that, like I would do it for everybody, but April, you know?
00:35:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:20
Speaker
I mean, you know, I would never do it for you either.
00:35:24
Speaker
Just kidding.
00:35:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:27
Speaker
Well, Sarah, this is great.
00:35:29
Speaker
I mean, I think staffing is one of those things that happens behind the scenes and that many people don't realize the importance of it and all the work that goes into it.
00:35:37
Speaker
And so if you could share like one takeaway for patients, healthcare professionals about the importance of staff, what would it be?
00:35:45
Speaker
Yeah, so I think first I want to back up and say just for us to understand the impact and the work that we do.
00:35:53
Speaker
I am always super grateful when Annie Fowler on the Virtual Village shares the patient stories because it brings in a full circle for our teams, right?
00:36:02
Speaker
Our teams are not on site.
00:36:04
Speaker
Right.
00:36:05
Speaker
They're remote.
00:36:05
Speaker
And so, you know, they understand the mission of what we're doing and why it's so important.
00:36:11
Speaker
But when Annie shares those patient letters and we hear that, you know, a life is saved.
00:36:17
Speaker
One of our clinicians saved a patient life or a patient really, really.
00:36:23
Speaker
listen to what that clinician advised.
00:36:25
Speaker
And it's because, again, the clinician had the time to go through and give their recommendations.
00:36:31
Speaker
And the patient took it and completely turned their life around.
00:36:35
Speaker
It's very inspiring to me.
00:36:40
Speaker
It's inspiring to the team.
00:36:42
Speaker
It comes a full circle, and it really, really helps us.
00:36:46
Speaker
Just solidify the why, right?
00:36:47
Speaker
The why we work after hours, weekends, why we jump in when there's an emergency and there needs to be someone on staff.
00:36:56
Speaker
And so I'm very, very appreciative for those stories.
00:36:59
Speaker
And I know our team is as well.
00:37:01
Speaker
So I just wanted to thank Annie for sharing those.
00:37:04
Speaker
And, you know, I think anytime that we can connect the patient back to the work that Central Services is doing is an opportunity for us to really feel the impact, even though we're a little bit further removed.
00:37:15
Speaker
Yeah, that's a great plug for all of our teams, you know, that are listening, that are internal to sound, to remember, to say thank you to your teams in the wings, you know.
00:37:28
Speaker
Thank you.
00:37:30
Speaker
Yes, absolutely.
00:37:31
Speaker
And then I think the takeaway would be just focusing on, you know, our intention is always to have clinicians at the bedside.
00:37:39
Speaker
And, you know, although I kind of say at the beginning, it sounds like
00:37:44
Speaker
It's easy.
00:37:44
Speaker
There are just many factors to really consider, such as, you know, finding the clinicians.
00:37:49
Speaker
There's remote areas, places that clinicians don't want to travel to.
00:37:54
Speaker
ECHO team does a fantastic job of finding those clinicians and then you know just going through that privileging process the onboarding it could be licensing setting up travel and then of course getting them on the schedule it's that once we identify that clinician that we know is a quality clinician is that we want to make sure that we retain them and
00:38:17
Speaker
We want them to, you know, have sound, be the employer of choice.
00:38:21
Speaker
We want to retain them and we want to make sure that we're staffed so that we can take care of every patient that walks through the door, no matter who they are or where they live.
00:38:30
Speaker
Right.
00:38:32
Speaker
I love that.
00:38:33
Speaker
Well, Zyra, you know, you and I could talk forever and then you add April and she never stops talking.
00:38:39
Speaker
So we could talk to you forever, but we are short on time, but we are really, really glad that you were able to come in, share with our call room guests, like everything that you do that staffing.
00:38:51
Speaker
So thank you, first of all, and thank you to your team.
00:38:54
Speaker
If you would please just a heartfelt thank you from our
00:38:57
Speaker
from us, from us ambassadors, and you support us in travel and all April and her APPs, you know, thank you very much to your team.
00:39:04
Speaker
And again, I think we've said this in the past, but we'll be more mindful to remember those guys in the wings and remind our teams that as well.
00:39:13
Speaker
And for those of you listening, if you have questions for cyber, you have ideas, topics
00:39:19
Speaker
You can reach out to us on social media at OnCallWithAprilAndAlicia.
00:39:24
Speaker
That's on Instagram.
00:39:25
Speaker
Same handle on LinkedIn, OnCallWithAprilAndAlicia.
00:39:29
Speaker
And you can also follow us, subscribe to our podcast.
00:39:32
Speaker
You can find our podcast on anywhere where you can stream a podcast.
00:39:35
Speaker
We are there.
00:39:36
Speaker
And for the archaic folks, as we always say, who are using typewriters,
00:39:41
Speaker
use a typewriter and send us an email i don't know nobody sends us an email but if you want to it's on on call uh podcast at sound physicians.com and um that's it happy thanksgiving right yep until next time you stay well and we'll stay on call bye everyone bye everyone