Working from home made possible in a health care facility - the experience of a tertiary hospital during the first Covid-19 wave
Avi Magid 1,2
,
 
Avi Magid 3,5
,
 
,
 
,
 
 
 
 
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1
Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel
 
2
The Max Stern Yezreel Valley College, Emek Yezreel, Israel
 
3
Management, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel
 
4
The Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
 
5
The Max Stern Emek Yezreel Valley College, Israel
 
6
The Ruth & Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
 
 
Publication date: 2023-04-27
 
 
Popul. Med. 2023;5(Supplement):A987
 
ABSTRACT
Background and Objective: In recent years working from home (WFH) has become more common worldwide. In spite of its advantages, its prevalence worldwide before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic was relatively low. The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic enforced millions of employees to switch to WFH. Unlike other work domains, data regarding the efficiency of WFH in health systems are sparse. The objective of this study was to describe the experience of WFH in a tertiary care center during the first wave of COVID-19, and to evaluate its efficiency as perceived by employees and managers. Methods: WFH for one day a week was permitted to selected hospital employees according to predefined criteria. A cross-sectional online survey was distributed to all employees to evaluate the experience, including the perceived efficiency and satisfaction while WFH. Descriptive analyses were used to describe the WFH characteristics. Results: Out of 611 employees who answered the survey, 26% were managers, and 42% were permitted to WFH. Most managers were able to evaluate the employees’ work efficiency (98%), had good communication with the employees while WFH (96%), and evaluated the employees’ work performance as satisfactory (100%). Most WFH employees worked in a private setting (85.7%) during fixed hours (84%). Only 43.1% combined home tasks with WFH. Almost all WFH employees reported meeting their working goals (98.7%), and perceived WFH as efficient (98.7%) with high quality (97%). Conclusions: Our experience during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that partial WFH can be successfully implemented in a large tertiary hospital with satisfaction of both employees and managers. WFH may now be gradually implemented to routine times without compromising work goals and objectives.
ISSN:2654-1459
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