QGenda has been part of the growing HealthTech startup landscape in Atlanta for over a decade. That has given the team a true reality check on the challenges facing healthcare systems and their staff.
And the current headlines about staff burnout aren’t an exaggeration, said Donna Kennedy, QGenda’s Senior Director.
“I wish we could talk about healthcare burnout in the past tense. Unfortunately, the industry isn’t there yet—especially regarding burnout among nurses. It’s a very real, extremely challenging problem that isn’t likely to disappear any time soon,” she told Hypepotamus. “Surveys indicate that more than half of all nurses are considering quitting not just their organizations, but healthcare altogether. Compounding this dire reality is the overall nursing shortage predicted to last through the end of the decade (at the very least). So, I’d describe the nurse burnout situation as critical—but not insurmountable.”
According to Mayo Clinic, Many healthcare professionals note that “lack of control” around scheduling can be a mean cause of burnout.
“Like anyone else, nurses tend to do their best work when they achieve a good work/life balance. In the past, however, that’s been a challenge. How do you allow each individual nurse the independence and flexibility they want but still meet the 24/7/365 demands of patient care across an entire healthcare enterprise?” Kennedy added.
To help more nurses and healthcare professionals, QGenda recently launched its first mobile workforce solution designed to manage the schedule of an enterprise healthcare workforces at scale.
“[It] empowers nurses, physicians, and other staff by letting them manage their own schedules. Staff can easily set their scheduling preferences, swap shifts, pick up extra shifts, sign up for partial shifts, etc.,” added Kennedy.
The platform allows for the easy scheduling of travel nurses, who are becoming a more important part of the evolving nursing workforce.
Shifting the healthcare narrative
After bootstrapping for many years, the team raised separate private equity rounds in 2016 and in 2020. The team has worked with massive healthcare systems across the country, including West Virginia University Health System, Ohio State University, Texas Tech University, Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center, and others.
Now, Kennedy said, QGenda is hyper focused on building tech solutions that combat burnout and build a better healthcare workforce. Its new mobile option will certainly help make that a reality.
“We must solve staffing challenges, or else provider burnout will continue to impact both the cost and quality of patient care. The existing situation isn’t sustainable,” she added. “However, I’ll go back to what I said earlier: As daunting as the challenge is, it can be overcome by making it easier for providers to gain control over their work/life balance. Health systems that genuinely support their nurses, physicians, and staff will reap the benefits of superior efficiency plus provider satisfaction and loyalty.”
