Making Telework for Hospital Workers Work

Executives from Texas Health Resources describe how they have tackled some of the challenges of enabling health system staff to work remotely.

With winter storms in full swing, it's a good time to review the benefits and challenges of enabling healthcare staff to work from home.

"While there are limits, we also have many instances where the work and technology have intersected to make working from home a reality," says Donna Coleman, human resource officer, system services at Texas Health Resources (THR) in Arlington.

Patti Consolver, senior director of patient access at THR, agrees. "There are multiple roles with the ability to work from home." Consolver cites studies that say 80% of employees consider working from home a perk and that workers are 35% to 40% more productive when they work from home.

Coleman and Consolver recently shared their experiences in allowing workers to telecommute. Their responses have been lightly edited.

HLM: Is allowing employees to work from home something your organization was always supportive of, or did you need to do some convincing?

Coleman: As we have moved into a world with various generations working together, we did need to understand that our workforce was changing, and that means we are required to look at how diverse we are becoming, both in terms of our age groups and with different needs and preferences.

Consolver: Advances in technology have certainly enabled us to implement teleworking where we could not have done so before. I'd say that our partnership with HR strengthened. They helped guide us in the process and ensure we are keeping things consistent.

HLM: What were some of HR's greatest concerns?

Coleman: There were some concerns regarding employee injury. These concerns have been met with the requirement of an initial worksite evaluation to assess physical work area safety, ergonomics, and security. Additionally, there is a requirement of an annual attestation that there have been no changes and a requirement of a new worksite evaluation when things do change.

Consolver: Training has been challenging for new hires. Historically, new staff would shadow seasoned staff to learn from the best of the best. With those staff members now working from home, this is a bit more challenging. Utilizing technology has helped in this area by taking advantage of online tools and resources.

HLM: What kind of negative employee feedback, if any, have you received?

Coleman: Our employee feedback has been that while employees love not commuting, they often feel "alone" and "disconnected."

In an effort to address this concern, leaders continue to have onsite meetings monthly or quarterly to bring teams together face-to-face. They may include a pot luck or other team building activities during on site time.

HLM: What kinds of security measures you take to ensure the safety of patient records?

Consolver: In order to get permission to work from home, the employee in question must be a top performer, the best of the best. We also have criteria they must meet. Their home workspace must be in a secure location, and an office environment; they can't just work from their couch.

There must be privacy in that workspace; they can't share an office. We do a home visit in the very beginning to ensure it's working out. From a paper perspective, we do not allow printing. We have a department in-house that will do that for them, and we also allow remote faxing.

We have a firewall set up so that when workers are signed on for work, they cannot access Facebook, Google, and other popular sites. We also have a mechanism in place where if the worker leaves a patient's information on the computer screen for an extended period of time without any activity, the screen will time out and take them off of the screen.

There are systems in place that records the screen history as well as the audio from the phone calls, which discourages workers from using information inappropriately.