Staff Shortages in Medical Practices: Why Automation Matters Now

The staff shortage in medical practices is no longer a future forecast - for many practices it is already part of everyday life.

Open positions stay unfilled for months, qualified MPAs are hard to find and existing teams often work at the limit of their capacity. At the same time, the number of patients is rising, administrative tasks are increasing and expectations around reachability keep growing.

Many practices therefore ask the same question: how can the high workload be reduced when additional staff is barely available?

The answer is not to replace employees. It is to take work off their plate.
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How big is the staff shortage really?

Anyone currently searching for MPA job openings quickly notices: demand is high.

In many regions of Switzerland, family practices, group practices and medical centres are all looking for qualified medical practice assistants at the same time. Many positions attract only a few applications - and some stay unfilled for a long time.

For existing teams, this often means:

• more phone calls and administrative tasks
• less time for patients
• overtime and additional strain
• harder cover for holidays and sick leave

The staff shortage therefore affects not just workforce planning, but the entire practice operation.
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The biggest strain often does not come from medical work

When people talk about the staff shortage in medical practices, many first think of missing personnel.

In everyday life, however, a different problem often shows: a large part of working time flows into recurring administrative tasks.

These include, among others:

• booking appointments
• rescheduling appointments
• phone enquiries
• prescription requests
• general information
• administrative preparation

These tasks are important - but in many cases they require no individual decision or medical assessment.

Even so, they constantly interrupt the working day and take up valuable time.
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Automation creates breathing room - not job cuts

The term automation sometimes raises scepticism in healthcare.

But it is not about replacing MPAs or front desk teams.

On the contrary: the goal is to relieve the existing staff, so that more time remains for the tasks that require experience, empathy and personal contact.

Patient conversations, medical assessments or complex organisational situations cannot be automated - and they should not be.

Routine processes, on the other hand, can.
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Which tasks make sense to automate

Many requests in a medical practice follow the same steps every day.

These include, for example:

• booking or rescheduling appointments
• answering standard questions
• capturing information for an appointment
• directing patients to the right contact person
• sending appointment confirmations and reminders

When these processes are automated, the number of phone interruptions drops noticeably. At the same time, staff stay involved in the workflow at all times and can step in when personal care is needed.
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An example from everyday practice

A patient wants to arrange a check-up appointment in the evening.

In the past, this often meant a call the next morning - often exactly when the phone lines are already busy.

With a digital solution like Mira, the patient can request their appointment outside practice opening hours. Mira asks the relevant questions, checks availability directly in the practice management system and assigns the appointment according to the practice's rules.

The next morning, the front desk team no longer has to coordinate this appointment by phone and can focus on patients who actually need personal support.

This does not create extra work - it creates less of it.
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Automation does not replace people

Automation is not a substitute for a well-coordinated practice team.

It replaces neither medical expertise nor the personal contact between the practice and patients.

It only takes over the administrative tasks that run by the same rules every day.

Especially in times of staff shortages in medical practices, this can make a decisive difference. Because when qualified employees are hard to find, it becomes all the more important to use the available resources as sensibly as possible.
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Conclusion

The staff shortage will keep medical practices busy in the years to come, too.

Finding new employees remains important - but at the same time it is worth deliberately relieving existing teams. Modern automation helps to take over recurring administrative tasks, reduce interruptions at the front desk and make everyday practice more efficient.

Not because people should be replaced.

But because qualified employees should spend their time where they make the biggest difference: with the patients.

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