How Employee Turnover in Healthcare Affects Us All
Employee turnover in healthcare affects ALL of us. From owners, to doctors, to staff, to patients.
Employee turnover may sound like just another HR statistic, but in the complex world of healthcare, it’s a silent epidemic that can hurt everyone involved. Like an ongoing infection, high turnover rates weaken organizations and impact the very core of patient care. Let’s take a closer look at how this constant staff turnover affects all the key players in the healthcare system.
How Turnover Affects the Business Owner
For business owners, the true cost of employee turnover often sneaks in under the radar. While some hiring expenses might jump out on the balance sheet, the bigger threats lie in less visible areas.
The expenses associated with turnover go far beyond just recruitment and training. There’s also the lost productivity from unfilled roles, the overtime paid to remaining staff, mistakes made by inexperienced hires, and the time management spends trying to fill gaps. This isn’t merely a financial issue; it’s a gradual erosion of resources that chips away at profitability.
Frequent turnover directly affects patient care. You might notice longer wait times and scheduling headaches, leading to a less satisfactory experience for patients. Owners might attribute revenue dips to market trends or stiff competition, but the real problem—the constant cycling of essential staff—could remain hidden.
Turnover can lead to burnout among front-line leaders, which compounds the turnover issue. Leadership turnover almost always brings more staff turnover.
Many of the true costs of turnover—like team morale or patient satisfaction—don’t appear in clear line items on financial statements. This makes it easy for business owners to overlook the issue.
Turnover’s Affect on Practice Managers
Managers and directors feel the brunt of high turnover, as they’re on the front lines.
The relentless need to replace departing employees can become a huge drain on their time and energy. Writing job descriptions, filtering applications, and interviewing candidates pulls them away from crucial strategic work and core responsibilities.
Training newcomers can be a daunting task, especially when it feels like a never-ending cycle. Leaders pour time and energy into onboarding, only to see new hires leave soon after, leaving them to repeat the process over and over.
The frustrations related to a rotating door of employees create a negative atmosphere. Leaders find themselves managing conflicts and trying to keep morale high amidst the chaos, which can undermine their effectiveness and sense of stability.
New hires often lack the practical skills and institutional knowledge of their predecessors, leading to a flood of questions that slow down productivity. This not only interrupts workflow but also steals valuable time from leaders, preventing them from focusing on innovation and growth.
The Doctor’s View of Employee Turnover
For physicians, the impact of losing experienced staff threatens their ability to deliver quality care - and their ability to be productive overall.
The regular loss of colleagues disrupts daily routines and erodes trust. Developing strong working relationships takes time, and the constant need to reestablish rapport can be exhausting.
With new hires often lacking the necessary skills, doctors find themselves spending more time supervising and correcting staff, which pulls them away from patient care. And soon providers like doctors and RNs begin to wonder, “should I be practicing medicine elsewhere?” which creates its own set of retention and revenue problems.
How Staff Views Turnover
For the staff that remains, a high-turnover environment is a demanding and negative place to work.
Dealing with a flood of new, inexperienced coworkers can create extra workload and lead to frustration. This constant cycle can drain morale and make team performance suffer, breeding resentment among existing staff.
Existing staff often find themselves in the unexpected role of trainers and mentors for newcomers. Though they may want to help, this responsibility can interfere with their own work and lead to burnout.
When turnover becomes the norm, it fosters a climate of anxiety. Gossip about who’s leaving next can circulate quickly, creating a negative atmosphere and leading the remaining employees to doubt their job security and satisfaction.
Pretty soon, your workplace becomes seen as a “revolving door” and it almost becomes a joke among the staff. But not the “funny ha-ha” kind.
Turnover’s Affect on Patients
At the end of the day, patients—who are the heart of any healthcare organization—feel the repercussions of turnover in significant ways.
Patients often wonder about familiar staff members who have disappeared. The loss of trusted caregivers erodes the personal connections that are so vital to effective care and patient loyalty.
With each new hiring, the potential for inefficiencies rises. Longer wait times and slower service from inexperienced staff can frustrate patients, leading them to feel that their healthcare provider doesn’t measure up.
A poor workplace reflects poorly in the eyes of patients. Who wants to be a patient in a clinic where the worker’s are clearly miserable?
Breaking the Cycle
Employee turnover in healthcare isn’t just a number; it’s a systemic challenge that touches everyone, from owners to patients. Understanding how these experiences are interconnected is the first step toward creating a solution. Investing in employee retention—through fair pay, growth opportunities, a supportive work environment, and recognition— is just as much about ROI as it is about the touchy-feely stuff.
Ignoring this hidden epidemic isn’t just a risk—it’s a disservice to everyone involved and undermines the foundation of healthcare itself.
Get My Guide to Employee Retention
Complete the form and immediately get my Guide to Employee Retention, with tips covering:
The psychology of retention
How to measure retention
Hiring effectively
Onboarding tips
BONUS - Subscribers who sign up for news and updates will get a biweekly newsletter with HR updates, leadership tips, and more.
To get it - sign up now!
