ABSTRACT
With the ability to direct patient care and generate revenue, advanced practice providers (APPs) - including nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) - are critical members of this team and can play an important role in the transformation of care delivery and the achievement of key quality, access, service, and financial goals.1,2 During this time of unparalleled disruption, there is an opportunity for healthcare organizations to renew their focus on using APPs to assist with ongoing COVID-19 related operations and planning for the future. In response to COVID-19, 78.6 percent of organizations redeployed or planned to redeploy APPs into other specialties because of clinical staffing shortages in critical departments.3 Given APPs' extensive training, specialty skill sets, and ability to adapt to different settings, these strategies often include redeploying APPs to provide support for COVID-19 surgerelated activities in the intensive care unit, testing sites, and employee health clinics, highlighting the versatile role this workforce plays in meeting patient needs and organizational goals. Executive leadership partnered with SullivanCotter, a national healthcare workforce consulting firm with experience in optimizing APPs, to assess the utilization of the current APP workforce and develop an intentional, data-driven approach to improve their optimization, engagement, and integration into the care team. REDESIGNING CARE MODELS TO SUPPORT APP OPTIMIZATION A steering committee that included Stanford's chief operating officer, chief medical officer, chief nursing officer, chief human resources officer, and key leadership advisors from the Center for Advanced Practice was formed to identify the clinical departments with the greatest opportunity for enhancement.