Rad Partners leader offers advice on guiding remote radiology teams

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A leader with Rad Partners’ Austin, Texas, affiliate ARA Diagnostic Imaging is offering advice on how to guide remote radiology teams in today’s evolving healthcare landscape. 

Stacy Sanso, ARA’s director of patient access, spoke Tuesday during the opening day of the Radiology Business Management Association (RBMA) annual meeting, PaRADigm. She highlighted the growing preponderance of remote teams after the pandemic, with about 31% of healthcare support workers at home full time and 14% on a partial basis. 

Some in radiology and other industries have mulled return-to-office mandates after the White House earlier this year called for the termination of remote-work arrangements for federal workers.  

“That is now infiltrating our workplaces,” Sanso told attendees March 25. “All of my remote workers are freaked out, thinking that they’re going to lose their job because we take Medicare patients,” she added later. “There’s a lot of fear out there because of these headlines.” 

Sanso cited a recent Fortune article, titled “Bosses are fed up with remote work for 4 main reasons.” She went through each item on the list, offering counter measures to address these concerns. Sanso spoke in the context of patient schedulers, rather than remote radiologists, techs or other members of a virtual care team. 

“As leaders, it’s important not just to know what the problems are but start working toward the solutions and figure out ways to combat the negative energy around remote work,” she said. 

1. Remote work is bad for new hires and junior employees: Some believe it’s difficult to train and onboard new employees, and they have little understanding about the mission. Possible counter measures could include: 

• Remote onboarding: Shipping equipment to remote team members with a checklist and setup instructions. 
• Trainer and mentor: Training new employees through virtual meetings and screensharing using a 5 to 1 learner-to-teacher class ratio, conducting a soft-launch “nesting period” for these employees with ongoing mentor engagement, and holding weekly new-hire check-ins with the direct supervisor after training ends. 
• Training videos: Creating short videos (preferably three minutes or less) for the interview process, onboarding and setting up a new hire’s computer. 
• Video library: Developing a video library to complement virtual training. 

“If you’re listening to their calls and they’re struggling in a certain area, you can assign them a training video to watch and reorient themselves on what they should be doing,” she said. 

2. Workers admit that remote work (sometimes) causes more problems than in-person work: When executed poorly, hybrid work plans can create “discordant, unproductive teamwork,” Fortune notes. Sanso suggested: 

• IT challenges: When employees face individual IT challenges, it’s helpful to have them screenshare so a team leader can work their way through the issue and fix it. 
• Downtime: When the organization is dealing with IT interruptions, Sanso suggested hosting Teams meetings to huddle and do something productive. “It creates accountability and allows us to have an opportunity to connect with our team members and make the most of the time that we’re down,” she said. 
• MIA: Set clear expectations for employees with accountability to help ensure individuals do not disappear in the middle of a workday. 

3. Remote workers put in 3.5 fewer hours per day compared to those in the office: Sanso stressed the importance of being able to see when members of the remote team are or are not working. Actions could include: 

• Baseline: Establish a baseline, ask hard questions via a survey, and determine whether your employees actually are working less at home. “This is a cultural problem as much as a behavioral problem, and you have to address both,” she said.  
• Engage: After setting that reference standard, leaders should develop and implement a plan to improve employee productivity. Sanso stressed the importance of speaking frankly and being vulnerable as leaders. 
• Statement: Connect team performance to a clear “purpose statement.” 
• Alignment: Tell your “purpose story” stemming from the team’s mission and then ensure your key performance indicators align with this mission. ARA has worked to align its own KPIs around measures such as patient satisfaction, call quality and productivity. The latter is broken down by hours so practice leaders can see what schedulers are doing throughout the workday. 
• Results: Use departmental surveys to measure if this work is serving its purpose. Sanso suggested Microsoft Forms as a key tool to aid in this effort. 

4. Productivity plummets on days when everyone is working remotely: Sanso stressed the importance of accountability and transparency. Radiology groups achieve this by: 

• Reports: Generating reports at the team and individual levels, showing the number of tasks completed per hour and then either rewarding those who meet their goals or coaching others who do not. “Hourly reports will show you so much. If you don’t have it today, get it tomorrow. It’s going to be life changing.” 
• Call and screen monitoring: Observe employees’ calls and computer screens live and record the results to ensure accountability and conduct quality-assurance activities afterward. 
• Transparency: Address any challenges “head on,” share feedback and comments with the team, and “lead by example,” letting employees see the team captain’s goals. She also suggested holding individual meetings with direct supervisors and senior leaders. 

“These are all really important things to do some self-reflection on and challenge the norm. Challenge yourself to take your leadership to the next level,” Sanso said.