The Workforce Multiplier: Designing Smart Clinics Around Team Efficiency
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- Solve complex problems with complex solutions – not complicated ones.
Distinguish complicated (knowable, linear) from complex (unknown, iterative) problems to use the correct solution for the relevant problem. Test hypotheses fast and keep learning. - Work in the “adaptive space.”
The space between order and chaos is where innovation happens Dr. Quiroga discusses how to keep teams between rigid order and unproductive chaos to enable safe, rapid iteration. - Make technology humanizing.
Lead with people and workflows, then layer tech including AI included, to relieve burden, not replace clinicians. - Redesign roles to unlock time.
A simple concierge and request-routing app saved nurses ~63 minutes per shift while improving experience. Keep learning from other industries and keep iterating to optimize solutions. - Become the most adaptive system.
Invest less in predicting the future and more in readiness: structures, cadences, and culture that can flex.
Treat workforce challenges as complex problems
Healthcare leaders are facing a perfect storm of workforce shortages, clinician burnout, and changing patient expectations. These aren’t complicated problems with clear, linear fixes. They’re complex systems challenges that demand experimentation and adaptability.
Dr. Quiroga suggests leaders approach them like clinicians facing diagnostic uncertainty: start with a hypothesis, run a small but meaningful test, measure the outcome, and adapt quickly. This shift from exhaustive planning to iterative learning empowers organizations to discover scalable, real-world solutions faster. It’s less about finding the one “right” answer, and more about building a culture that learns its way forward.
When you have a complex problem, you have a hypothesis… you try, you measure, and very fast you start finding a path to the solution.
Alejandro Quiroga, MD, MBA
Lead in the adaptive space between chaos and order
Too much structure kills innovation; too little creates chaos. The most effective teams operate in the adaptive space – the dynamic middle ground where creativity and safety coexist.
Dr. Quiroga described how healthcare leaders can design for this balance by creating stable rhythms of work, consistent meeting cadences, transparent communication channels, and shared accountability, while leaving room for iteration and discovery. In that space, people are empowered to test ideas without fear of failure, and systems evolve naturally toward smarter, more efficient operations. Maintaining this tension between order and flexibility allows organizations to stay innovative even in high-pressure environments.
You don’t want to bring chaos down to order… you want to work in that adaptive space. Iterate there.
Alejandro Quiroga, MD, MBA
Use technology to give time back to people
Technology becomes transformative only when it frees clinicians to focus on what matters most: patient care. At Children’s Mercy, a simple operational redesign led to the introduction of a non-clinical concierge role and replacing the outdated call button with a smart routing app, which dramatically improved efficiency.
The system automatically directed non-clinical requests to concierges, saving nurses roughly 63 minutes per shift while enhancing both staff satisfaction and patient experience. Dr. Quiroga emphasized that the real success wasn’t the minutes saved, but how those minutes were reinvested into meaningful work.
The same principle applies to AI: when automation gives time back to people, not just the balance sheet, it builds trust, resilience, and long-term sustainability.
Don’t try to give savings back to the balance sheet; give it back to the people… let things resettle so the job becomes possible again.
Alejandro Quiroga, MD, MBA
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