Managing leave requests covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) can be a complex, time-consuming process in any industry. It turns into an even bigger challenge in healthcare, where employees out on leave must be replaced with equally skilled professionals to maintain staffing ratios and quality of care. Before leave managers can begin to tackle what happens once an employee departs for a leave of absence, there’s a series of steps they must take to determine whether an employee is eligible for leave, to administer the time off, and to prepare for the employee’s eventual return to work.