Lack of Retention: High Turnover Rates
A new series is here - how exciting! For the next few months on the blog, we’ll be uncovering some of the problems that exist in the healthcare industry, diving into detail about what’s caused the issues, and finally looking at ways to solve the existing problems instead of throwing our hands up in the air and saying, “Well, that’s just the way it is.”
Because those of us in healthcare know that our industry is full of problems. But they’re our problems and we love them, right? No thanks. Not this healthcare leader. I actively spend my days fighting burnout and training others to do the same so we can face these challenges head on together instead of sticking our heads in the sand and pretending we can’t see what needs to change.
Although I have to admit friends, I see the temptation. I’m often tempted myself. When we do start to discover and uncover the many issues facing our industry, it quickly becomes overwhelming. Which is why we’re going to take this series bit by bit, one problem at a time. Because there’s no working towards any real solution, until we fully understand the problem.
We’ll put these problems into neat little categories I’m calling “Kinds of Lack”. We’ll explore what’s missing in the industry and look inside to see what problems are created by the lack.
First up is:
Lack of retention
Hospitals and healthcare organizations have an extremely difficult time retaining employees. Within this specific “lack” we’ll begin with the more specific problem of high turnover rates.
Let’s Dive In
Some interesting data points to get the ball rolling.
“The average turnover rate for all employment is 3.5 percent. Industries with higher turnover rates include food service, sales, construction, and arts and entertainment organizations. Turnover in these industries is well above the 3.5 percent rate, going as high as 6.1 percent in arts and entertainment.” (Houston Chronicle, 2019)
AND YET
“The American Medical Group Association estimated a national annual rate of 6.8% for physicians and 11.5% for advanced practice clinicians, higher rates have been documented in community health centers and underserved settings.” (Annals of Family Medicine, 2019)
Physician turnover rate in 2019 was almost DOUBLE the national average turnover rate and even higher than freelance fields like arts and entertainment. WOW. Sorry parents, according to these stats becoming an actor is actually more stable than becoming a physician. In other words, it’s statistically more likely to retain an actor in their position than a physician! Maybe we should be urging more of our kids into acting lessons? Or maybe we should dig deeper into this problem. Lack of retention is a common gripe among physician leaders and healthcare organizations.
But why?
Why are physicians leaving their posts at higher rates than ever? In order to begin to work towards a solution later on, we must dive deeper.
Several factors seem to be at play. Besides the obvious, poor leadership leads to higher turnover rates, which we’ll soon see is connected to a lack of training AND a lack of engagement. “Cejka Search noted that the increasing turnover rates coincide with housing market improvements and recovery in stock prices. As physicians feel more financially secure, they are also more willing to consider new job opportunities and relocating” (Westgate, Physicians Practice).
Next time, we’ll dive deeper into the “Lack of Retention” problem with another closely related element: physician shortage. As physicians are in higher demand across the country and willing to relocate themselves and their families to somewhere new, they can easily be recruited away to another healthcare organization if the price is right.
(Although, that statement assumes that a physician’s top priority is income or a higher salary. We’ll look at this misconception later in relationship to both the healthcare industry’s lack of communication and lack of alignment. There is a lot of juicy information to unpack in this series! I am looking forward to it, friends.)