The medical field is experiencing a significant challenge that has persisted over the past few years – clinics and hospitals are losing valuable members of their organizations, including doctors, nurses, and support staff. Despite this experts believe medical organizations can increase staff retention rates by addressing pain points, prioritizing employee well-being, and enhancing people management practices.

Healthcare practitioners have been facing a continuous onslaught of COVID-19 patients. These circumstances were aggravated by the strain of operating in an environment where some individuals did not acknowledge the existence of the pandemic. Even further, healthcare workers are also subject to a growing number of attacks and verbal hostility [1].

While there have been notable improvements in healthcare employment since the pandemic-induced downturn, the industry remains 306,000 jobs short of pre-COVID-19 levels, which translates to a decline of nearly 2%. This information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that more progress remains to be seen in the healthcare sector’s recovery.

Experts have identified that the increasing presence of millennials and Gen z’s in the workplace contributes to the rapid turnover rates. These generations tend to switch jobs more than their predecessors, so companies must adapt their retention strategies.

This generational tendency causes the people-management paradigm to change. Nurses and doctors may enter the profession out of a sense of calling, but they are more likely to leave if they encounter high-stress levels, a rigid work environment, meager wages, and a barrage of tasks that aren’t related to providing care to patients.

Apart from that, non-healthcare industries offer competitive wages and desirable schedules to attract skilled workers amidst a fierce labor market. This presents another incentive for healthcare professionals who are seeking better employment opportunities.

Novant Health’s chief medical officer, Eric Eskioglu, reveals that their regional system has lost two medical assistants to Target. The motivation for this is that the retailer’s salary offer is $1 more an hour than what Novant Health offers. Target is also paying for their college tuition, leaving Eskioglu feeling like he’s competing with industries he never imagined he would.

Why Training & Management Approach Matters

Besides offering competitive compensation to its staff members, practice leaders must also invest in better training for their managers. A recent survey by Ernst and Young revealed that most Americans who left their previous jobs cited a lack of empathy from their managers. Employees seek out and prefer managers who possess empathy as a valuable leadership trait to establish a committed team.

To ensure healthcare workers remain motivated in their roles, hospitals must also offer opportunities for continuous development and professional growth. Many healthcare professionals who work long hours for modest salaries can erode their passion for caring for others. By prioritizing these key factors, hospitals can help their employees stay engaged and committed to delivering patient care.

To compete in the challenging labor market transcending various industries, practice managers must prioritize reigniting employee passion. Doing so is essential to fostering a motivated workforce and achieving superior results.

How Digital Tools Solve Workplace Pain Points

Utilizing technology could significantly enhance the abilities of medical professionals, allowing them to work at the peak of their expertise. In addition, this would mitigate burnout and improve satisfaction and retention among healthcare workers.

Medical professionals often complain about “click fatigue” [2], but modern EHR vendors and tech-savvy providers are finding solutions. With the help of artificial intelligence or AI and voice-to-text technology, medical documentation can become personalized and streamlined for a more efficient experience.

One Medical, a primary care network, employs advanced natural language processing and AI to optimize the routing of EHR requests. This approach results in 40% fewer tasks for providers in the EHR system by 4 PM each day.

For hospitals seeking to retain their staff, leveraging technology can play a critical role in providing staff with timely, actionable information. Nurses can gain significant advantages from this approach as it allows seamless access to comprehensive patient data without requiring manual sign-ins or time-consuming metric searches. This also ensures that nurses are fully equipped with up-to-date patient information, allowing them to provide the highest level of care and improve patient outcomes.

Healthcare organizations promote a culture of informed decision-making and foster a more engaged workforce by ensuring that employees have access to the data they need – precisely when needed.

Investors are taking notice of the potential benefits of utilizing technology to optimize the core medical workforce. By capitalizing on existing employees, healthcare organizations can save on recruitment costs for new staff members.

Small practices in rural areas need to explore cost-effective solutions to tackle staff attrition as they face a financial crunch due to two years of the pandemic. Due to budget constraints, these facilities need help attracting travel nurses and temporary replacement workers.

As patient interactions shift towards digital channels, technology can alleviate staffing shortages and pave the way for virtual medical assistants to assist with administrative tasks remotely. Opting for virtual team members instead of in-person ones helps practices save expenses and improves overall efficiency. Most importantly, this strategy creates a culture where patients and in-person staff members become accustomed to a virtual environment as it becomes the future norm.

Practice leaders can trust My Mountain Mover when looking for a virtual medical assistant. As the top VA provider in the US, healthcare practices gain access to the top 2% of virtual talent across the industry thanks to our stringent applicant screening process. Moreover, we provide continuous support so that practices have a positive and streamlined experience of working with the best VA. Book a 10-minute discovery session today to learn more.

References

[1] “Threats, obscenities, homicide: Healthcare workers are stressed by pandemic face elevated violence” healthcaredive.com

[2] “Association of Electronic Health Record Use with Physician Fatigue and Efficiency” jamanetwork.com