Our Story
The Healthcare Leadership Lab (HCLL) was founded in 2021 by Jeffrey Vargas, a workplace innovation guru and President/CEO of Generationology, LLC, and Dr. Kathy Albert, an Advanced Practice Provider (APP) and healthcare workplace innovator.
Combined, Jeff and Kathy bring more than 50 years of experience in healthcare and leadership development. They each share an authentic passion and desire to expand and support healthcare workers on their professional development journeys.
Jeff and Kathy care about healthcare workers and value the work they do. They believe that every single healthcare worker should have opportunities to excel and lead themselves and their teams in a healthy workplace. Jeff brings a perspective as a consumer of the healthcare system and a workplace thought-leader and Kathy has an inside out view working as an APP for over twenty years.
Jeff and Kathy use their collective professional experiences, knowledge of cutting-edge research, and unique synergy to help season the visions and transformational actions of their clients. They help their clients see themselves and their workplaces through prisms of possibility, accountability, empathy, courage, and humility.
Our Focus
Addressing the Health Care Leadership Challenge
Healthcare expenditure represents nearly 18% of America’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is valued at over $3.8 trillion dollars (NHE Fact Sheet | CMS). It is an economic powerhouse managed and led by a healthcare workforce of just over 20 million (Bureau, U.S.C.). Despite its size and strength, the healthcare system undoubtedly faces a multitude of challenges, leading to a collective feeling of hopelessness in a system deemed by many as “broken.”
The team at the HCLL wants to be part of the solution. To thoroughly and effectively have a positive impact, we are laser focused on challenges that are of highest priority, including:
Change is inevitable in healthcare organizations, which nearly mandates a need to optimize employee performance. To meet the ever-changing demands, innovative strategies and leadership are crucial in fast-paced environments staffed with overworked, overwhelmed, and exhausted healthcare workers. Despite the circumstances, most employees still want to learn and grow.
Factors as time (patients, learning), money (budgets, diminished income streams), and knowledge (sharing, building) are often either not addressed effectively or at all in the absence of servant leadership and collaborative efforts from all levels of a workforce.
Despite the addition of an estimated 2.3 million healthcare workers by 2026, it is estimated the demand foreseen to properly and optimally care for aging (and unhealthy) patients will not be enough to offset the supply. Though the healthcare workforce shortage long preceded the pandemic, it has certainly been augmented by it and is anticipated to grow. Many seasoned nurses and healthcare workers have opted to retire, while some just left the field as the burden was too just too much.
Nearly two years from implementation of pandemic restrictions, we see the physical and emotional aftermath of front line and many other healthcare workers experiencing burnout, fatigue, disengagement, and despondency. Supporting our current healthcare employees, encouraging and mentoring students and new healthcare workers, and creating attractive work cultures are key elements to remedying the current shortage.
Job satisfaction is multidimensional and affects future career goals, social relationships, and personal health, all of which can lead to low self-esteem, poor job performance, and ultimately impact organizational functioning. It is suggested that a work ecosystem that focuses on policies and strategies to promote conducive working conditions can have a positive effect on employee job satisfaction (Job satisfaction among health care providers: A cross-sectional study in public health facilities of Punjab, India (nih.gov).
This is clearly illustrated in the healthcare industry, which has a turnover rate just over 30% above other major industries. One striking example is a recent National Healthcare Retention & RN Staffing survey which pointed out that “…the average cost of turnover for a bedside RN is $52,100 and results in the average hospital losing $4.4M – $6.9M annually.” The solution is to identify and address the reasons employees seek employment elsewhere.
Additionally, several surveys suggest a significant percentage of healthcare workers are very dissatisfied with their workplace, feel underappreciated, experience significant trust issues with co-workers, and see little interest and support for personal or professional development. The collective perception is a feeling of an unsupportive work environment. When healthcare workers are dissatisfied with the workplace their mental and physical health can be compromised and patient care can be diminished.
