The healthcare landscape continues to evolve, and medical clinical staffing trends are no exception. It is important for healthcare managers to comprehend these trends to enhance operational productivity and performance as well as tackle issues related to staffing and productivity.
In this article, AMGA’s 2024 medical clinical staffing survey reveals critical staffing trends facing medical groups and health systems. This blog will provide a real interpretation of the findings into operationalization.
1. Staffing Levels Return to Pre-COVID Numbers
Clinical staffing for the medical groups has normalized to 2.15 FTEs per provider, effectively the same as a pre-pandemic level. As these numbers indicate the fact of recovery, they also prove the increasing production requirements are a concern for which staff elevations are not proportional.
2. Rising Productivity vs. Slower Staffing Growth
Medical groups saw productivity improve by 5.2%, or work relative value units (wRVUs), and a 3 percent increase in patients seen from 2020 to 2024. But staffing looks like it rose only 1.3 % per provider per year. This imbalance makes it look like providers are overstretched while they are expected to deliver far greater output, a situation that often results in burnout and inefficiency.
3. Fewer Staff per Work Volume
In 2020, clinic staff comprised 4.35 FTEs per 10,000 wRVUs, but this declined to 3.71 FTEs in 2024 – that is, a decline of 1.64 FTEs or 14.7% on an FTE/wRVU basis. This goes to prove that there is high productivity pressure on providers, all while they have fewer resources at their disposal.
4. Impact of CMS wRVU Value Changes
Development of wRVU values by the CMS has triggered distortions of productivity adjusted staffing levels. However, Mike Coppola, the Vice President and COO of AMGA Consulting has noted that staffing, but increasing again, is still constrained by economic factors; therefore, practices continue to face staffing challenges.
5. Longer Wait Times for Patients
Patients are also delayed when it comes to follow-up appointments. In medical groups that are ACA-affiliated health systems, the wait time for established patients stood at 1.1 days in 2022 but raised by 3.3 to 4.4 days in 2024. The delay may lead to dissatisfaction and interruption of patient care.
6. Improved Schedule Fill Rates
In this regard, an improvement of nearly 5% was recorded in schedule fill rates from 2022 to 2024 for groups affiliated to health systems, which shows that despite restricted human capital, efficient use of available resources was achieved.
7. Increased Role of Advanced Practice Clinicians (APCs)
The authors also appreciate the enhanced significant role that APCs are increasingly occupying in primary care. The latter increased from 39.6% in 2020 to 48.1% in 2024 in health system-affiliated organizations. This trend shows an awareness of the need for nurses and other essential providers to address provider shortages.
What This Means for Healthcare Providers
These findings reveal both opportunities and challenges for medical groups:
- Efficiency Optimization: Balancing increased productivity with adequate staffing levels requires smarter resource allocation.
- Leveraging APCs: Advanced practice clinicians can help bridge staffing gaps and improve access to care.
- Proactive Planning: Managing some inefficiencies, like the longer time that patients wait in the hospital and inequality in the growth of staffing levels, will be key to continuing to deliver good health services.
Final Thoughts
The survey reveals that medical clinical staffing flexibility is crucial in the current volatile healthcare industry for AMGA. So, by understanding these trends and taking prompt actions, medical groups can drive improvements in staff and operational productivity and patient satisfaction while bolstering provider well-being.
