Transcript
Speaker: You love football.
Speaker: I love football.
Speaker: April, do you like football?
Speaker: I mean, I like football, but I don't really watch football.
Speaker: So that means no.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Well, you're out of the cool girls club.
Speaker: There's a lot of people in sound that love sports and football.
Speaker: And I always get on calls.
Speaker: They're talking.
Speaker: I'm like, I have no idea what anybody's talking about.
Speaker: This is on call.
Speaker: This would be really cool to just wear scrubs all the time.
Speaker: And you don't have to think about what you're going to wear to work.
Speaker: We're here to answer your questions.
Speaker: We can sit down and discuss them.
Speaker: Wait, I gotta go.
Speaker: I'm on call.
Speaker: Wait, you're on call?
Speaker: I thought I was on call.
Speaker: Okay, everybody.
Speaker: Welcome back to another episode of On Call with April and Alicia.
Speaker: I'm Alicia.
Speaker: I'm April.
Speaker: I'm Syrah.
Speaker: Hey.
Speaker: We have a guest.
Speaker: We've got a guest.
Speaker: So we've got Syrah Ayyub.
Speaker: She is our senior director of staffing here at Sound Physicians.
Speaker: She's going to tell you all about what she does and why we've got her on our podcast today.
Speaker: But for now, welcome Syrah.
Speaker: Welcome to the call room.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: We're excited to have you.
Speaker: We really are.
Speaker: We just, we're just together a couple of weeks ago and at Halloween.
Speaker: And now we're moving into Thanksgiving.
Speaker: What are you guys doing for Thanksgiving?
Speaker: We go to my in-laws.
Speaker: They host and we actually spend the night over there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We spend the night over there the night before, and then we hang out and have dinner and all the things.
Speaker: So we're excited.
Speaker: And your in-laws in Maryland, right?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: They're like 25 minutes from us.
Speaker: So they're not far.
Speaker: And like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of miles away in Dallas, Texas is Syrah.
Speaker: So what are you guys doing for some students?
Speaker: Well, I have a busy week, a busy couple of weeks, actually.
Speaker: On Thursday morning, I fly out to Puerto Vallarta.
Speaker: My cousin's getting married.
Speaker: So it's going to be- Oh, nice.
Speaker: Yeah, he's letting you there.
Speaker: I'm good to know your cousin and I are like really good friends.
Speaker: Yes, please go.
Speaker: I would love to be your plus one or two.
Speaker: I don't care.
Speaker: It's going to be a good time.
Speaker: I'm really, really excited.
Speaker: I don't know if anyone, if you guys have attended Indian weddings, but they are absolute blast.
Speaker: There's things going on every night while we're there.
Speaker: Super excited to celebrate with her.
Speaker: And the next week, I'll be with my sister who lives also in the Dallas, Fort Worth area.
Speaker: My mom lives here and my niece is a nephew.
Speaker: And we'll just get together, cook, hang out, watch football all day.
Speaker: That's my love language.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: We talk football.
Speaker: You love football.
Speaker: I love football.
Speaker: April, do you like football?
Speaker: I mean, I like football, but I don't really watch football.
Speaker: So that means no.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Well, you're out of the cool girls club.
Speaker: There's a lot of people in sound that love sports and football.
Speaker: And I always get on calls.
Speaker: They're talking.
Speaker: I'm like, I have no idea what anybody's talking about.
Speaker: You're like, yes, they got a three pointer right now.
Speaker: I mean, I know the game.
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.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Pretty good.
Speaker: But I wanted to just say, Sarah, I've never been to an Indian wedding, but I have heard,
Speaker: so much.
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.
Speaker: Like that looks like a blast.
Speaker: You'll have to send us pictures because I would love to go.
Speaker: But again, I'll be your plus two or three or however many people you're allowed to bring.
Speaker: I'm coming.
Speaker: Bring me.
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
Speaker: But I know that we owe it to Saira to be better podcast hosts than that.
Speaker: Oh, my goodness.
Speaker: Saira, only because of you.
Speaker: Yes, we do.
Speaker: I'm not distracting myself with TV.
Speaker: Okay, but we do.
Speaker: We've got a short amount of time and a lot of information to cover.
Speaker: So, first of all, we did just mention we've got Saira hanging out with us in the call room today.
Speaker: Saira is our senior director of staffing.
Speaker: Saira, why don't you...
Speaker: I'm going to have you tell the audience a little bit about yourself.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: But what I want to do first is a little quick session, rapid fire, break the ice, April.
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.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Sounds good.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: You go first.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: I'm going to break tradition.
Speaker: We're not going food this time.
Speaker: No food.
Speaker: I know.
Speaker: But the holidays are coming.
Speaker: It's my favorite time of the year, especially with my kids.
Speaker: So, Sarah, what is your favorite holiday tradition?
Speaker: Can be any holiday that's coming up.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Well, I really, I know I feel like this is probably the popular choice, but I do love Christmas.
Speaker: I loved it as a kid.
Speaker: My mom would make it really, really special for me and my sister.
Speaker: And my birthday is in December, so I still have my birthday.
Speaker: and then two weeks after it was Christmas.
Speaker: So it was just a festive time.
Speaker: We got a lot of dedicated time to spend with the family and friends.
Speaker: And now that I have nieces and nephews, celebrating Christmas morning with them is just very, very magical.
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.
Speaker: It's just, yeah, it has to still be my favorite holiday, even as an adult.
Speaker: Oh, I love that.
Speaker: I know my kids love it.
Speaker: We're fully decorated for Christmas already, by the way.
Speaker: Well, I tell you, we, we got yelled at last year, right, Julie, about this, but I have to say same.
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.
Speaker: Um, but it was like sixties and then it, the bottomed out on us.
Speaker: So I at least got stuff outside.
Speaker: I don't care anymore.
Speaker: I just like looking forward to holidays is nice.
Speaker: OK, all right.
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.
Speaker: What is your favorite holiday movie?
Speaker: Any holiday, but you can go Halloween to New Year's.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And April, think, because I'm going to ask you and see if you remember what you said last year.
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.
Speaker: Like, that was one of my favorite movies.
Speaker: Was that Bette Midler?
Speaker: Do I'm sorry?
Speaker: Is Bette Mittler?
Speaker: Was she?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And Sarah Jessica Parker.
Speaker: Yes, it was.
Speaker: It was just so good when it came out and I have to watch it every year.
Speaker: And this year, the staffing services team, we did Spirit Week for Halloween.
Speaker: So every day we had a dress up.
Speaker: And so one of the themes was movies.
Speaker: And so we got to do Hocus Pocus and it was just really, really fun.
Speaker: We had a
Speaker: One of our anesthesia team leads, Lauren Walker, she lives next door to a cemetery.
Speaker: So she dressed up as the guy, I think his name's Billy, that is in the cemetery.
Speaker: And she went and took, we asked her to go take the picture there with a group photo.
Speaker: So it's posted on Vitals.
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
Speaker: Yes, it's real.
Speaker: Those are tombstones.
Speaker: So we all got in this fair and it was fun to just kind of relip the magic of Hocus Pocus.
Speaker: I saw some of these, Saira.
Speaker: Naomi, who works with us.
Speaker: For those that don't know, I probably have never said Naomi's name on this podcast yet.
Speaker: You're welcome, Naomi.
Speaker: Naomi's my brains for the ambassadors.
Speaker: But she was sharing these with me while you guys were doing it.
Speaker: You guys had different themes.
Speaker: You had Mean Girls on Wednesday.
Speaker: We were pink.
Speaker: It was so creative.
Speaker: April, we definitely need to show these to you.
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
Speaker: It was fun.
Speaker: Yeah.
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.
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.
Speaker: So it was, it was a fun week and just something to break up the day to day.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: April.
Speaker: So your hocus pocus, Sarah, April, what's, what's your, do you remember your favorite holiday movie?
Speaker: Well, of course.
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.
Speaker: I just, yeah.
Speaker: But I also love Elf.
Speaker: The kids love Elf.
Speaker: Oh, you sit on the throne of lies.
Speaker: And then the original Santa Claus is my other one.
Speaker: That would be my favorite Christmas.
Speaker: I forgot about that one.
Speaker: I love that one, too.
Speaker: Well, there's like three or four of them, but yeah, but I love the original one.
Speaker: Yeah, no, I that one was that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh, my gosh.
Speaker: I completely forgot about that one.
Speaker: Huh, I'm just a Grinch.
Speaker: I like the original animation of the Grinch.
Speaker: I watch it like on repeat.
Speaker: I mean, that's a classic too.
Speaker: Yeah, it is.
Speaker: I just love, and I love the narration.
Speaker: I think it's Boris.
Speaker: I can't remember his last name, but just his voice is so rich.
Speaker: I just love it.
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
Speaker: that you do every day.
Speaker: You make a huge impact in the lives of others.
Speaker: And we really appreciate everything you do.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: And speaking of impact to the lives of others, we have Saira here for a very specific reason.
Speaker: We were talking about the holidays, all this wonderful stuff.
Speaker: movies and food, but a lot of people get sick at this time of the year.
Speaker: This is a time where our hospitals are starting to bust at the seams a bit and our staffs are stretched.
Speaker: Patients are frustrated.
Speaker: Staff members are frustrated.
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.
Speaker: So I just wanted to introduce Saira.
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.
Speaker: Thank you, Alicia.
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.
Speaker: I'm so thankful to be a part of Sound Physicians.
Speaker: I started out
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.
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.
Speaker: to be a part of the workforce, but that's where I was when I was 16.
Speaker: So started in retail, you know, tried different things, was in retail for a very, very long time.
Speaker: Retail, as you guys know, brings out the best and worst in people.
Speaker: Yeah, I did feel like I learned a lot and just really, you know, I enjoyed it.
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.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And I think I started putting arm pads and knee pads and helmets on.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I was like, you know, I want to try something else new.
Speaker: And I think that's what being young is about is really trying to figure out like, where is your passion, right?
Speaker: I don't think that it's fair for anybody at 16 to know what they want to be when they grow up.
Speaker: I feel like I still ask myself that question every day as I'm
Speaker: Looking to see, you know, where do I want to go in my career?
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.
Speaker: So spent a little time in retail and then I moved into working for.
Speaker: DeVita Pharmacy and DeVita Pharmacy is a pharmacy that provides for DeVita dialysis patients.
Speaker: So I worked in the patient enrollment department.
Speaker: I got to work directly with patients and the goal of the pharmacy was to enroll them
Speaker: into the pharmacy so they could get their medications while they were getting dialysis or shipped directly to their home.
Speaker: Because for those patients, the access or transportation to get to a pharmacy wasn't always available.
Speaker: And so, you know, they would have transportation to dialysis.
Speaker: So it just helped to make sure that they adhere to their treatment plan by making sure that they got their medication.
Speaker: I really enjoyed that.
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.
Speaker: So I enjoyed that.
Speaker: That was my first exposure to the medical field.
Speaker: And I just, I really, really enjoyed being able to help people and not be a medical professional.
Speaker: Unfortunately, the
Speaker: Sight of blood is not something that I tolerate very well.
Speaker: So kudos to both of you guys and everybody that treats our patients.
Speaker: So it's not something that I could do, but I knew that I wanted to help.
Speaker: I think people say that, Syrah.
Speaker: You'd be surprised.
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
Speaker: So I was with DeVita for a little bit, and then I was like, okay, time to start something new.
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.
Speaker: So basically a staffing agency, and they work with different organizations like sound, like urgent cares, it could be anything.
Speaker: specialty, you name it, there's a staffing agency out there that helps find clinicians when there is a need.
Speaker: And that agency works kind of like, you know, like I said, a staffing agency.
Speaker: And so I worked there.
Speaker: I learned about the locums world, really enjoyed it where I worked.
Speaker: It was it was very recruiting, recruiting based and sales.
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.
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.
Speaker: And she referred me.
Speaker: She thought I would really enjoy the role.
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.
Speaker: It was an old TA team there.
Speaker: And that's where I really learned how to do it.
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
Speaker: an amazing leader, and Kevin Lunsford, who's still our senior staffing manager.
Speaker: And we talked about my goals and my development and the opportunity that was there for me to really develop into a leader.
Speaker: And then when the time came, I interviewed and team lead was my first leader position here at Sound Physicians.
Speaker: I will tell anybody that asks, it's the hardest position that I've had.
Speaker: It's really learning how to transition from an individual contributor into a leader
Speaker: learning how to work through others, right?
Speaker: And learning how, okay, I was, you know, a peer and now I'm a leader.
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?
Speaker: To grow, to have a space to grow into the position and career that I wanted at Sound Physicians.
Speaker: So team lead was the most fulfilling and the toughest position that I held, right?
Speaker: And then I moved into a manager role of the A-team, and that was in 2020.
Speaker: We had the A-team, and we also h ad a new service line, anesthesia.
Speaker: So I get to be a part of getting that off the ground, which anesthesia is super interesting.
Speaker: I love the service line, love learning about it and continuing to grow anesthesia with
Speaker: sound.
Speaker: And so I was in a manager position for about a year and a half.
Speaker: And then the director position came available.
Speaker: And I honestly had to think about it.
Speaker: I really, really enjoyed being a manager.
Speaker: I enjoyed supporting the team, working with the individual contributors and my team lead.
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.
Speaker: And
Speaker: other leaders in the organization to make the department as a whole better.
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.
Speaker: I want to make the biggest impact that I can to sound decisions.
Speaker: And so I accepted the director role and haven't looked back.
Speaker: I've
Speaker: Absolutely enjoyed learning how to be a director.
Speaker: One of the things that I was honestly a little scared of was spreadsheets and numbers.
Speaker: That was not my jam.
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.
Speaker: Over the years, it's something that now I enjoy.
Speaker: Like I really, really love looking at the data.
Speaker: I love data analytics, what the story of the data tells, what, you know, the numbers are just never, right?
Speaker: You really have to know what the story is.
Speaker: I was gonna say like, once you understand it, you love it.
Speaker: But when you don't, you're like hogwash.
Speaker: Yeah, so I surprised myself with that.
Speaker: And I thought it was something that I was like, Oh, I don't want to do this all the time.
Speaker: And I don't have to do it all the time, fortunately.
Speaker: But what I do, I really, really enjoy it.
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
Speaker: Again, you don't really know what you don't know.
Speaker: You have to try things in order to figure out what really fills your bucket.
Speaker: So I thought that was interesting.
Speaker: And then last year, we also acquired the soundboard team, which is the onboarding team.
Speaker: They work with our incoming W2s and ambassadors to give them the best onboarding experience possible.
Speaker: Because as you guys know, you only get one chance to make a good first impression.
Speaker: So the onboarding team is now under my umbrella staffing services.
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.
Speaker: And they're really focused on getting to the site and providing exceptional patient care.
Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker: That's a mouthful.
Speaker: Two things I want to point out.
Speaker: A-Team, April's old stomping grounds.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: It was named after April, affectionately, the A-Team.
Speaker: If only that were true.
Speaker: But I was one of the OGs in the A-Team.
Speaker: We've got to give Kevin a shout out.
Speaker: Sorry, April.
Speaker: I cut you off.
Speaker: Go ahead.
Speaker: No, I was going to say, there's not many of us left, but there are still some around.
Speaker: No, the OGs.
Speaker: So, yep.
Speaker: Well, you started it, you ended it, I guess, April.
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.
Speaker: But hi, Kevin.
Speaker: And that's all I wanted to say.
Speaker: Sorry, Kevin.
Speaker: He is a huge fan.
Speaker: He's a huge fan of you guys.
Speaker: I already heard from a couple of people like he is jealous.
Speaker: We're going to find something for Kevin to do.
Speaker: But for this moment, this is Kevin's corner here.
Speaker: Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker: Okay.
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.
Speaker: We've talked about this in previous episodes.
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.
Speaker: And so I flew out to her.
Speaker: Yeah, the annual data.
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.
Speaker: Alicia would do the coffee run.
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.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So that's how we go.
Speaker: Like we go to dinner.
Speaker: We like cheers to each other at eight o'clock at night while we were still working.
Speaker: And it was that was but data.
Speaker: April is the one that taught me data.
Speaker: So big eye roll when I first was like Excel sheet.
Speaker: I got to make up.
Speaker: I had to make a graph from an Excel sheet.
Speaker: I was freaking out.
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.
Speaker: I'd have just been like, Chad, could you make this for me?
Speaker: Can you figure this out?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But now if you see in Sunday, the rest of problem, we'll dig in to that data.
Speaker: So, uh, yeah, we love it.
Speaker: And it does tell a story.
Speaker: Once you do, you kind of do feel like you're on top of the world.
Speaker: So that was a great opening.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Well, we're going to start with our questions.
Speaker: We'll make it as painless as possible.
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?
Speaker: Absolutely.
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?
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.
Speaker: And we want to make sure each person that walks through the door has accessibility to care.
Speaker: So that sounds easy, right?
Speaker: But as you guys know, that's not always the case.
Speaker: Staffing is like a puzzle.
Speaker: Like you may have all the pieces to put it together and that's the best case scenario.
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?
Speaker: So it's so much more in my mind than just the schedule.
Speaker: It really, staffing encompasses so much more and it
Speaker: It starts with working with our perm recruiters, right?
Speaker: Because we want to make sure that we have the clinicians there.
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.
Speaker: And at times, you know, sometimes the perm recruiter can sign a clinician that may not graduate till next year.
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.
Speaker: And so that's where our ECHO team comes in.
Speaker: And our ECHO team is our internal locums agency.
Speaker: So they're gonna work to find somebody to come in and work as a locums for us.
Speaker: We work with ECHO.
Speaker: And then there's times when it's just, we have a
Speaker: a very, very big need.
Speaker: We may be down a significant amount of FTEs at the site and we need more resources.
Speaker: And so then we work with our, what we call third party vendors.
Speaker: And so those are the companies that function as a staffing agency.
Speaker: We're contracted with them.
Speaker: The staffing team manages those contracts and the relationships.
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.
Speaker: So now we have the clinicians, right?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: We've worked with all the different departments to get the clinicians.
Speaker: Then onboarding them is going to be the second part in that, right?
Speaker: We want to make sure that they have a seamless, positive onboarding experience.
Speaker: And with that, we're partnering with the privileging team.
Speaker: Amanda's team has a big part in the onboarding because getting privileges is a task in itself.
Speaker: It's a process.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
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.
Speaker: So it's coordinating all of those pieces and working with our medical staff office at the hospital.
Speaker: So our privileging team does a fantastic job of that work, making it again as easy for the clinician as possible.
Speaker: And then making sure we have those privileges before the first scheduled start date.
Speaker: That's always very important because we have someone on the schedule.
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.
Speaker: We want to
Speaker: have the schedule out and have it filled.
Speaker: So that's very, very important.
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.
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
Speaker: you know, finding the most safe solution for the clinician, but also the most cost effective option for sound as well.
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?
Speaker: Because our goal is to retain all of our clinicians.
Speaker: As I just kind of outlined, there's many, many departments that play, and I may have even missed a few, but
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.
Speaker: So we have to work together and that takes, that takes all of us.
Speaker: Yeah, sorry.
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.
Speaker: But for context, we're not talking about 10 programs, right?
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.
Speaker: different gaps and barriers and staffing.
Speaker: So this isn't small scale, one or two hospitals.
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.
Speaker: So I just didn't want to make sure you guys get the recognition.
Speaker: It's not as easy as, you know, plug and playing on just a couple of sites.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yes, good point.
Speaker: Yes, we do.
Speaker: Right now, the staffing team supports RHM, hospital medicine, emergency medicine, anesthesia, and tele-HM.
Speaker: Yeah, all of it.
Speaker: Yeah, and each service line is different, right?
Speaker: So it's really learning the...
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.
Speaker: So, and like, so I'll piggyback off of that.
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.
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?
Speaker: How does it affect team morale, communication, all of those things that can come with inadequate staffing or being well-staffed?
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: So I'm going to start with the first part of it is how do we get to well-staffed, right?
Speaker: Because there's a process there.
Speaker: And it starts with our schedules, as I mentioned.
Speaker: But our goal is to have the schedule out 90 to 120 days in advance.
Speaker: So that is an expectation.
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
Speaker: PRNs, Moonlighting, Ambassadors, make sure we put all those pieces of the puzzle on the schedule first, right?
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.
Speaker: So once the schedule is completed with those groups of labor, we're publishing it out.
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.
Speaker: So we wanna make sure the schedule's out in advance, 90 and 120 days.
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.
Speaker: And then if we have to, we'll go to our third party.
Speaker: Something I want to point out about locums is that they're always booking 90 to 120 days in advance.
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.
Speaker: Otherwise, when we go to them, if we're going to them 30 days out or 60 days out, the likelihood of
Speaker: that technician or that locum having availability becomes slimmer and slimmer.
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.
Speaker: And unfortunately at that time,
Speaker: we lose some of the leverage in filling the shifts because it's a supply and demand, right?
Speaker: And so when there's lots of shifts open, that becomes a little bit harder because our clinicians know that we need them.
Speaker: So we wanna try to get it out in advance and that way we really have a chance of filling the schedule.
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.
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?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: than when we have enough staff there.
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,
Speaker: human tendencies start to rush through them, right?
Speaker: And you don't have as much attention to give to each task because you're trying to get to the next one.
Speaker: And when I relate that to a clinician, that's a patient on the other end of that.
Speaker: And so, you know, they're,
Speaker: Naturally, trying to see every patient because every patient does deserve the care.
Speaker: But when we don't have adequate staff, they have less time with each patient.
Speaker: And, you know, one of our goals is to make sure that each of our patients have.
Speaker: that accessibility to care and that our clinicians have the time to spend with each of the patients.
Speaker: So I think that's the downstream effect when we don't have enough staff.
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.
Speaker: And that's definitely not ideal.
Speaker: Yeah.
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.
Speaker: you're stressed, right?
Speaker: Like you're stressed and you're overwhelmed.
Speaker: And so.
Speaker: Yeah, we talked about this before.
Speaker: The patient's overwhelmed too.
Speaker: So everybody's, everyone in the situation's overwhelmed.
Speaker: And I think respectively, they all are.
Speaker: But yes, it is a, it's a challenging position, Syrah.
Speaker: We've been there.
Speaker: I've definitely been there understaffed at times and it's not great.
Speaker: So thank you.
Speaker: Obviously, thank you for what you do there because
Speaker: You make our lives a lot easier.
Speaker: Yeah.
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.
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
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.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: We do have great teams that step in when they need to.
Speaker: I think that's why they do it because we do it for each other.
Speaker: You build that culture.
Speaker: I was just thinking about that when she said that, like I would do it for everybody, but April, you know?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I mean, you know, I would never do it for you either.
Speaker: Just kidding.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, Sarah, this is great.
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.
Speaker: And so if you could share like one takeaway for patients, healthcare professionals about the importance of staff, what would it be?
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.
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?
Speaker: Our teams are not on site.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: They're remote.
Speaker: And so, you know, they understand the mission of what we're doing and why it's so important.
Speaker: But when Annie shares those patient letters and we hear that, you know, a life is saved.
Speaker: One of our clinicians saved a patient life or a patient really, really.
Speaker: listen to what that clinician advised.
Speaker: And it's because, again, the clinician had the time to go through and give their recommendations.
Speaker: And the patient took it and completely turned their life around.
Speaker: It's very inspiring to me.
Speaker: It's inspiring to the team.
Speaker: It comes a full circle, and it really, really helps us.
Speaker: Just solidify the why, right?
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.
Speaker: And so I'm very, very appreciative for those stories.
Speaker: And I know our team is as well.
Speaker: So I just wanted to thank Annie for sharing those.
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.
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.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: Yes, absolutely.
Speaker: And then I think the takeaway would be just focusing on, you know, our intention is always to have clinicians at the bedside.
Speaker: And, you know, although I kind of say at the beginning, it sounds like
Speaker: It's easy.
Speaker: There are just many factors to really consider, such as, you know, finding the clinicians.
Speaker: There's remote areas, places that clinicians don't want to travel to.
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
Speaker: We want them to, you know, have sound, be the employer of choice.
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.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: Well, Zyra, you know, you and I could talk forever and then you add April and she never stops talking.
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.
Speaker: So thank you, first of all, and thank you to your team.
Speaker: If you would please just a heartfelt thank you from our
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.
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.
Speaker: And for those of you listening, if you have questions for cyber, you have ideas, topics
Speaker: You can reach out to us on social media at OnCallWithAprilAndAlicia.
Speaker: That's on Instagram.
Speaker: Same handle on LinkedIn, OnCallWithAprilAndAlicia.
Speaker: And you can also follow us, subscribe to our podcast.
Speaker: You can find our podcast on anywhere where you can stream a podcast.
Speaker: We are there.
Speaker: And for the archaic folks, as we always say, who are using typewriters,
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
