Research & Data
UNOS Staffing Survey provides trusted data for staffing decisions
For transplant administrators like Christopher Fowler, division VP of transplant services for Medical City Healthcare in Dallas, proper staffing is essential to delivering high-quality patient care. It’s also one of the hardest areas to benchmark.
The UNOS Staffing Survey gives participants access to staffing and workload metrics from transplant programs across the country, helping leaders make informed staffing decisions based on objective data. The survey’s interactive tools make it easy to identify trends, communicate findings with stakeholders, and forecast future workforce needs.
Before UNOS developed its Staffing Survey, many programs relied on informal conversations and anecdotal comparisons to understand how their staffing levels compared with similar transplant centers.
“It develops a level of trust with senior leadership that I am not just making something up. I have some real data behind what I am asking for.”
— Christopher Fowler, division VP of transplant services, Medical City Healthcare
UNOS Staffing Survey fills the gap
“I would ask my friends at other centers, ‘How many transplant coordinators do you have?’” Fowler recalled. “But I would not be able to have nice hard data to present to the finance teams or senior leadership teams to justify the staff that I’m asking for. It would all be word of mouth.”
The UNOS Staffing Survey fills the gap by collecting annual data across full-and part-time employees from nearly two-thirds of all transplant hospitals. An interactive benchmarking dashboard, the ability to export data, and a supplemental report allow for easy reporting.
Insight to inform staffing decisions
Fowler says Staffing Survey data is especially valuable for long-term planning. “Transplant staff are not easy to come by,” he said. When developing a five-year plan and forecasting growth, he factors in the additional staff needed to increase transplant volume. “I can set the stage to let finance know I’m going to be asking [for additional staff] so they have heard about it for years before I actually ask for it,” he said.
In an increasingly data-driven healthcare environment, the UNOS Staffing Survey provides actionable insight.
“It develops a level of trust with senior leadership that I am not just making something up,” Fowler said. “I have some real data behind what I am asking for.”
Christopher Fowler’s participation in this article is based solely on his professional experience. The views expressed are his own and do not represent the endorsements of Medical City Healthcare or HCA Healthcare.
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