MGMA Data Reveals Medical Practices' Innovation to Overcome Staffing Challenges

Report shows that healthcare practices are implementing new models and workflows to maintain patient access and meet post-pandemic demands

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Aug. 30, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) released a new report detailing the innovative solutions employed by medical practices to combat staffing challenges and maintain access to care for patients. The 2023 MGMA DataDive Practice Operations report serves as a valuable point of reference for other practices, featuring data and benchmarks gathered from nearly 1,000 organizations that represent a wide range of specialties and practice types.

The insights from the data underscore how medical groups have adapted to staffing and economic challenges by revamping their staffing models, fine-tuning schedules and finding sustainable workflows. These efforts enable them to consistently deliver excellent healthcare while ensuring convenient access for patients. A more in-depth analysis is available in the summary report, Restoring Balance to Patient Access and Medical Practice Operations.

Key insights from this report include:

• In 2022, front office staff experienced a turnover rate of 40% across all practices, with clinical support and business operations support staff turnover rates closely behind at 33%.
• While operations during the week stayed consistent amid staffing shortages, primary care practices report cutting weekend availability by eight hours below pre-pandemic levels.
• With the exception of prescription (re)fill rates, patient portal utilization continues to outpace pre-pandemic levels. The top uses of patient portals include accessing test results (49%) and communicating with providers/medical staff (39%).
• Workflow improvements and innovations such as telehealth helped medical practices reduce time to the third next available appointment for new patients — a key patient access metric — by half since 2019, from 10 days to only five days in 2022.

"In response to prolonged staffing and economic challenges, medical practices have employed innovative solutions to improve patient accessibility and combat staff turnover," said Halee Fischer-Wright, MD, MMM, FAAP, FACMPE, president and chief executive officer of MGMA. "This report highlights that the implementation of digitized self-service tools simplifies administrative tasks for staff, allowing them to prioritize patient-facing care."

The summary report includes new 2022 data and solutions that health leaders are implementing to address these issues. To learn more, download the report here.

About MGMA
Founded in 1926, the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) is the nation's largest association focused on the business of medical practice management. MGMA consists of 15,000 group medical practices ranging from small private medical practices to large national health systems representing more than 350,000 physicians. MGMA helps nearly 60,000 medical practice leaders and the healthcare community solve the business challenges of running practices so that they can focus on providing outstanding patient care. Specifically, MGMA helps its members innovate and improve profitability and financial sustainability, and it provides the gold standard on industry benchmarks such as physician compensation. The association also advocates extensively on its members' behalf on national regulatory and policy issues. To learn more, go to MGMA.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

CONTACT: Brad Krebs, [email protected]

SOURCE Medical Group Management Association