Asia's hospital administrations and healthcare executives are grappling with challenges evolving on multiple fronts. While patient volumes climb, healthcare staff shortages are becoming more acute. At the same time, the need to safeguard and continually improve care quality and patient safety remains paramount. This is why Hospital Management Asia is partnering Baxter, a leading global healthcare solutions provider, to deliver a series of educational webinars. The first webinar on staff burnout will be held on 29 November 2022, and registration is now open at https://www.hospitalmanagementasia.com/events/tackling-the-new-healthcare-crisis-healthcare-worker-burnout/.

Asian hospital leaders to delve into staff burnout

Each of these webinars will focus on a pertinent patient care and safety topic, and bring together C-suites and heads of departments from top hospitals in the region to share their perspectives. We will also hear about innovations that can drive better quality and smarter care.

The first webinar will focus on the growing crisis of healthcare worker burnout. Burnout will not only affect staff job satisfaction and retention, but also quality of care and potentially lead to severe patient safety incidents.

Three hospital leaders – from HR, Operations and Nursing – will each speak from their perspective on the challenges that burnout brings, initiatives they have undertaken to resolve this, and the eventual results. They are:

• Ms. Bita Sigari Avendano, Vice President, Human Resource Management & Development at Makati Medical Center in the Philippines, will be sharing how she manages burnout amongst staff at her hospital, and the strategies in place for staff retention.
• Ms. Png Gek Kheng, Chief Nurse, Changi General Hospital, Singapore, will share her insights on the potential impact of burnout on nurses and the hospital's strengthened efforts to support nurses.
• Dr. Ananth Rao, Chief Operating Officer of IHH India will present his perspectives on the issue, particularly from the cost-benefit angle.

"A crucial part of the healthcare workforce, nurses have persevered steadfastly in their care for patients despite facing tremendous stress while battling the pandemic on the frontline. But even the bravest soldier may feel tired physically or mentally after a prolonged battle. As the Caring General Hospital, we emphasise on the importance of self-care, engage and listen to our nurses actively, supporting and empowering them to redefine the role of nursing, through constant innovation for the healthcare of tomorrow," said Ms. Png. 

Dr. Ananth said: "Workplace burnout is a silent threat to workforce output in any industry. In healthcare, where a multi-process care delivery system with a lot of manual intervention is the mode of service delivery, burnout ought to be taken seriously by all Line Managers and Senior Leadership.

The cost of rework (of errors caused by burnout) is higher than the cost of correct service delivery. Employee engagement and trying to deliver novelty at every opportunity is key to reduce burnout, the cost of which far outruns the cost of risks associated with burnout."

Attendees can also look forward to hearing about how they can work 'smart' to lessen workloads and mitigate the risk of burnout, for example through:

• Leveraging automation tools that cut manual repetitive tasks, and connected care solutions that improve workflow efficiencies;
• Adopting smart protocols such as falls prevention strategies that lessen hospital burden and improve work satisfaction for nurses while enhancing patient safety and experience.

Click here to register today.