Hospital leaders have been facing staffing shortages in healthcare for years. Factors driving this trend include an aging workforce and rising patient volumes—both of which were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
These challenges are amplified for emergency medicine (EM) and hospital medicine (HM) programs, as they typically face high burnout rates and unpredictable demand. As a result, these departments are prone to longer wait times, decreased patient satisfaction, and inconsistent quality of care. In this blog post, we share a wealth of strategies that EM and HM leaders can use to staff smarter, not harder.
Strategic EM/HM Recruitment: Attracting Top Clinical Talent
The first thing to know about strategic recruitment is that it starts long before you post a job opening. If you are having trouble gaining and retaining top talent, take a close look at the shared views, values, and practices that define how staff interact, make decisions, and approach their work within your organization. In other words, zoom in on culture.
Culture is the invisible force that shapes how staff interact, make decisions, and approach their work. It influences everything from daily workflows to long-term retention. In high-pressure environments like EM and HM, a strong, supportive, service-oriented culture is not just a nice-to-have—it’s a necessity. It can mean the difference between a team that thrives and one that struggles with turnover and burnout.
Assessing Your Current EM/HM Culture
Use the following questions to evaluate your current culture. Your answers can reveal gaps—and opportunities—for creating an environment that supports excellent care and strong collaboration.
Do you have a clear mission and actionable values?
Clearly articulated values provide a compass for decision-making and help staff align their work with organizational goals.
How are leaders modeling these priorities?
Leaders must walk the talk, demonstrating values in their daily actions and decisions.
What feedback are you getting from staff?
Listen to both current employees and those who have left. Exit interviews and regular check-ins can reveal pain points and opportunities for improvement.
How are you promoting diversity and inclusion?
Start by creating an environment that nurtures honesty, education, openness, respect, and humility. Be clear about the ways you may have not operated inclusively before and transparent about the actions you’ve taken to change. Be the kind of company that people of diverse backgrounds want to work at, because they know they will be given a seat at the table.
How do EM and HM departments interact?
Collaboration between all departments is essential for seamless patient care. However, the interaction between EM and HM is especially important as it is (1) historically tense and (2) directly related to the success of patient transfers and outcomes. Assess communication and teamwork between your EM and HM teams.
Are different generations working well together?
With Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z all working side by side, fostering intergenerational collaboration is key. The first step might be helping the groups gain a better understanding of each other’s key motivations, values, and goals.
Do you recognize staff contributions?
Recognition—both formal and informal—boosts morale and engagement. Train managers to proactively find out what types of attention (e.g., 1:1 feedback, group announcement) or type of award (e.g., free food, company swag) each of their team members prefer so they can customize rewards and recognition.
What professional development opportunities exist?
Continuous learning and growth keep staff motivated and prepared for new challenges.
Are there structured upward and downward review processes?
Regular feedback loops help staff feel heard and valued.
Who is involved in decision-making?
Including staff who work at all levels of the company, have different educational and professional experiences, and hold diverse identities fosters respect, innovation, growth, and buy-in.
Are competencies and compensation up to date?
Regularly review these to ensure they align with industry standards and staff expectations.
What messages are sent about work-life balance?
Flexible scheduling and wellness initiatives are great—but are they backed up by everyday actions? Look at where manager communication or policies might unintentionally contradict those messages.
Are benefits aligned with staff needs?
Tailor benefits to what your staff truly value, whether that’s childcare, mental health support, or flexible hours. Not sure what they want? Ask. Research options. Collaborate with staff to create a mutually satisfactory benefits structure.
Translating Culture Insights into Recruiting Strategy
As the organization makes progress toward a stronger, more engaging culture, leaders gain a clearer vision of what gaps exist that can be bridged by hiring, outsourcing, or automating. These insights should inform what jobs you make available, who you want filling those jobs, and where you look for candidates.
Your culture assessment should also provide useful direction for how you can improve communication and efficiency throughout the hiring process. Possible steps include:
Targeted Job Postings
Use what you learn to create specific, direct job descriptions that attract the right candidates.
Expanded Recruitment Channels
Promote open roles on new or different platforms to reach a broader, more diverse talent pool.
Technology-Driven Screening
Leverage technology for first-round applicant screening, streamlining the hiring process and reducing bias.
Continuous Improvement
Ask recent hires about their onboarding experience and implement their suggestions to improve future recruitment.
Engaging Expert Support for Healthcare Staffing Success
Building a strong organizational culture and implementing smarter recruiting strategies are essential steps toward overcoming persistent staffing challenges in emergency medicine and hospital medicine. However, even the most forward-thinking hospital leaders can benefit from expert support in clinician recruitment, retention, and management.
That’s where Aligned Providers comes in. With a dedicated team of emergency and hospital medicine experts, we help hospitals build a culture around the same types of values that drive our work:
- Cultivate trust between teams and in your community
- Nurture a growth mindset
- Prioritize strong, multidisciplinary collaboration
- Commit to high quality care—every day with every patient
- Lead by example, make decisions conscientiously, and promote positivity
Explore what Aligned Providers Staffing Solutions could do for you.
Conclusion
Staffing smarter starts with culture. By assessing and strengthening your organizational culture, you can attract and retain top talent, improve collaboration, and deliver better patient care—especially in high-pressure departments like EM and HM. Use the insights gained from your culture assessment to inform every aspect of your staffing strategy, from job postings to onboarding and beyond. In doing so, you’ll build a resilient, high-performing team ready to meet the challenges of modern healthcare.
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