After a successful Phase 1 Patient-Focused Staffing program at AdventHealth West Florida Division (AHWFD) —which helped the inpatient enterprise achieve $38M in
Year 1 and $13M in Year 2 in annualized labor savings— leadership sought to extend a unified labor management approach into its medical groups.
This next phase focused on AdventHealth Medical Group (AHMG) West Florida, a network of 300+ primary care and specialty providers across more than 100 clinics. AHMG had never used a formal labor management system, but with the broader organization adopting a patient-focused staffing approach, it became important that AHMG also participate to build the same culture and methodology across the entire health system.
Challenges
Managing labor in a medical group environment brings a unique set of challenges distinct from those seen in hospital operations:
- Foundational Labor Management Structure: Unlike the inpatient division, AHMG’s clinics had a loosely established methodology around understanding productivity. While this provided a “blank slate,” it also meant a steeper learning curve.
- Incomplete, Inaccurate, and Underutilized Data: Data inconsistencies related to volume, staffing, and salaries frequently produced misleading productivity results. This made it harder to gain manager and director buy-in as the reports showed they were grossly overstaffed or understaffed.
- Opportunity to Better Optimize Clinic-to-Clinic Coordination: Leaders were not accustomed to functioning as an integrated network. As a result, overstaffed and understaffed clinics did not routinely share resources or communicate staffing needs in real time.
- Geographically Dispersed Clinics: With more than 100 practices spread across West Florida, bringing managers together for training or collaboration was impractical. Productivity huddles were conducted 100% remotely, which made it difficult to cultivate engagement.
Approach
The Impact Advisors team included experts in nursing, including a nurse practitioner who is a Medical Group Subject Matter Expert as well as a Data Analyst Specialist. The engagement began by establishing a labor improvement goal of $1.5 million and associated targets for each individual department. In choosing these goals, the team selected the most efficient target from the current fiscal year’s targets, the prior year’s targets, or the prior year’s actual performance.
Next, Impact Advisors delivered virtual coaching sessions with managers and directors to educate them on the underlying drivers behind staffing variances. They collaborated closely with the teams to set up calculators and scheduler tools that enabled them to staff according to the scheduled volume to reach their daily productivity targets. This allowed the organization to accommodate volume growth without adding more resources.
Bi-weekly productivity huddles were implemented to compare performance, discuss challenges, and plan staffing adjustments before the close of each pay period. Directors were gradually empowered to lead these huddles independently, which significantly improved engagement and accountability.
Data issues and charge lags were elevated by the Impact Advisors consultants to the AHMG executive leadership, who collaborated with two dedicated Advent Health Operations Performance Advisors to correct inaccuracies and improve provider workflow. This strengthened transparency and built an appreciation for how accurate data impacts operational outcomes.
Positive Impact
The engagement generated significant financial and operational value for AHMG West Florida—exceeding expectations and laying the groundwork for lasting cultural transformation. Although the initial goal was $1.5 million in annualized labor savings, the organization achieved over $4.3 million in savings.
Impact Advisors’ process helped create a common language for labor management across the healthcare system and gave managers and directors a clearer understanding of the underlying drivers of staffing performance. The transparency of the target-setting process helped leaders build trust in the methodology and increased their ownership of results.
In addition, long-standing issues such as inaccurate cost center assignments, misallocated staff hours, and charge lags were identified and addressed, enabling clinics to better understand and act on their performance. This improvement in data integrity led to better communication between cost centers and leadership.
Keys to Success
Several factors contributed to the success of the AHMG West Florida engagement, enabling the organization to overcome early challenges and generate results that far exceeded the initial financial target.
- A strong partnership between Impact Advisors and Advent Health West Florida Division
- Empowered leaders that were equipped with staffing tools and financial literacy to manage their teams
- Executive alignment to ensure expectations were clear and consistently communicated
- A unified language of productivity that strengthened communication across the health system, from cost centers to C-suite