Increasing patient demand and persistent staffing challenges require more than traditional hiring strategies—they demand multiple smart, scalable workforce solutions. Organizations that rethink care delivery, leverage technology, build strategic partnerships, and invest in culture will not only survive but thrive in the evolving healthcare landscape.
By acting now, healthcare leaders can employ sustainable workforce models that empower clinicians, improve patient outcomes, and redefine how modern healthcare is delivered.
3 of the Top Healthcare Workforce Challenges
1. The demand for healthcare services is accelerating.
The Association of American Medical Colleges projects a 48% increase in the over-65 population by 2032, driving higher patient volumes. Meanwhile, studies show chronic conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory disorders are increasing hospital admissions and requiring more specialized, long-term care.
2. Staffing challenges continue to strain U.S. healthcare systems.
The National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN)’s recent National Nursing Workforce Study found that 39.9% of RNs and 41.3% of LPN/VNs intend to leave the workforce or retire by 2029, which could create significant gaps in staffing and expertise. Certain locations will feel the strain more than others. A law firm used the study data to create a ranking of the states with the worst nurse shortages, and Utah, Washington, Georgia, Wyoming, and Maryland emerged as the top five.
3. Job dissatisfaction and burnout are being experienced by frontline healthcare workers.
The reasons why a healthcare professional might be dissatisfied or burned out are personal, varied, and often reflective of the nature of their individual position. Unhappiness with a role can be attributed to tangible factors, including pay rate and patient ratio, as well as intangible factors, like administration/workplace politics. Furthermore, healthcare professions can be inherently stressful due to constant exposure to high-stakes scenarios, including human suffering and life-or-death decisions. Support staff, like telemetry or patient care technicians, may leave their positions for similar rates of pay in lower stress, non-healthcare environments.
3 of the Top Smart Workforce Solutions
1. Rethink how care is delivered.
Use virtual care strategically to redistribute workloads:
- By considering the right role for the task – Assigning tasks based on the minimum qualifications necessary frees up other individuals to perform duties that better align with their expanded qualifications or licensure. For example, the completion of admission histories could be delegated to virtual licensed practical nurses (LPNs), plans of care to virtual registered nurses (RNs), and telemetry monitoring to virtual certified electrocardiograph technicians (CETs).
- By removing geography as a barrier to finding the right person for the role – The specialized knowledge, capabilities, and experience of clinical team members located in other geographic locations can remotely support patient care at your local facility. For example, virtual patient sitters with Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI) Verbal Intervention™ training can reorient confused patients, decrease attempts to pull at lines, and prevent bed exits, falls, elopements, and other adverse events by monitoring at-risk patients through video feeds.
2. Embrace technology as both a workforce multiplier and a stress limiter.
The future of healthcare lies in leveraging innovation—not just to do more, but to do better with the resources available. Advancements in AI, machine learning, and predictive analytics are reshaping healthcare by identifying patient risks earlier. At the same time, virtual nursing, remote patient sitting, and telemetry monitoring are helping hospitals optimize staffing resources and improve care coordination.
For example, with virtual patient sitting, one person can go from watching one patient at a time (1:1) to a one-to-many approach (1:10 up to 1:50), depending on the patient risk profile and monitoring technology. By embracing healthcare staff augmentation with the help of Hicuity Health—one of the nation’s largest, most experienced, independent providers of acute virtual care services—the stress of recruitment, onboarding, training, shift and staff oversight, and ongoing education is alleviated while your patients receive the benefit of continuous safety monitoring.
>> Related Read – Hicuity Health Partners with BioIntelliSense to Offer Scalable End-to-End Continuous Patient Monitoring for U.S. Health Systems
3. Invest in strategic partnerships and organizational culture.
While some healthcare organizations may have the resources to develop in-house programs for virtual nursing, telemetry monitoring, and virtual patient sitting, others may find greater value in partnering with experienced third-party providers. The right partner can scale virtual care services faster, expand your organization’s capabilities and service lines without diverting or overtaxing bedside resources by supplying specialized expertise and custom staffing solutions, and lower your overhead costs. For example, organizations opting for virtual nurses vs. travel nurses can achieve approximately 20% cost savings per hour—a significant advantage that adds up over time.
Strategic partnerships in the healthcare ecosystem can also offer turnkey, white-labeled solutions to help hospitals and health systems launch service lines in new care venues.
In addition, bringing a virtual care partner into the mix creates an opportunity to strengthen organizational culture. Healthcare workers are typically drawn to the profession by a desire to make a difference, so it’s important for healthcare leaders to recognize the importance of fostering a sense of purpose and connection. A collaborative program with the right virtual care partner:
- Embraces the values and cultural pillars of the hospital or health system.
- Removes some of “the noise,” allowing the bedside team to focus on actionable, direct patient care.
- Complements the practical skills and knowledge at the bedside with a robust pipeline of talent offering both seasoned career and specialty experience.
By prioritizing bedside-and-virtual peer collaboration, strong leadership, and a culture that reinforces the meaningful impact of the work, hospitals and health systems can improve morale, enhance job satisfaction, and ultimately reduce turnover.
Healthcare Workforce Challenges Meet Smart Solutions: 3 Real-World Success Stories
- Virtual Nursing – A three-hospital system in the Northeast, serving 400,000 people, turned to Hicuity Health to stabilize staffing and reduce costs. Heavy reliance on travel nurses led to high costs, frequent rate negotiations, and staffing instability, while direct-hire recruitment was difficult due to the system’s remote location and competition from hospitals within 40 miles. Hicuity Health’s Virtual Nursing Service provided a more cost-effective and stable alternative to travel nurses, alleviating staffing challenges.
- Virtual Patient Sitting – A full-service pediatric hospital in Louisiana, known for its innovative approach, partnered with Hicuity Health to enhance patient safety through a unique application of virtual sitting. Hicuity Health’s Virtual Patient Sitter Service provided continuous monitoring for mental and behavioral health patients, complementing in-person safety protocols. It also enabled constant oversight of patients admitted for disordered eating, with increased attention during mealtimes and regular safety rounds.
- Remote Telemetry Monitoring – One of the largest post-acute facility networks gained ready access to Hicuity Health’s large team of certified telemetry technicians to provide 24/7 cardiac monitoring of patients on the service. The network’s Internet of Things (IOT) device provider also partners with Hicuity Health to offer a comprehensive, joint technology and services solution. This approach not only relieves the individual facilities’ administrative burdens of sourcing and staffing the technicians themselves but also enables the aggregation of patient volume across the network to deliver an economy-of-scale benefit.
>> Ready to learn more about innovative virtual care solutions from Hicuity Health? Contact us today.
Healthcare Leaders: The Time to Adapt Is Now
The healthcare industry is at a crossroads, facing unprecedented workforce management challenges that threaten its ability to deliver high-quality patient care. Hospitals and health systems must rethink traditional care delivery models, leveraging technology, strategic partnerships, and shifts in organizational culture to overcome these challenges effectively.
Virtual care innovations—including virtual nursing, patient sitting, and telemetry monitoring—offer cost-effective, scalable, and sustainable solutions for alleviating staffing pressures amid growing demand for healthcare services. With experienced virtual staff augmenting bedside teams, workloads can be optimized to drive better clinical outcomes.
>> Learn how Hicuity Health’s virtual care solutions can strengthen your workforce and enhance patient care. Contact us at 855-Hicuity (855.442.8489) today.
