Many healthcare leaders today know that labor is the leading cost driver in the industry – the cost of healthcare staff turnover is estimated to be 38% of annual salary expense per employee.
And as labor continues to be many organizations biggest expense, employee retention is a critical component to the financial success of any healthcare organization. But with the industry’s frustrating lack of interoperability, employees have taken on the job of the data processor, shifting the hours spent by employees from being in front of patients, to being in front of computer screens, logged in to disparate EMRs, EHRs and other interfaces shepherding patient data into the right fields. The consequences have manifested in the form of burnt-out employees, skyrocketing administrative costs, and less time spent with each patient – but how big is the problem, and how can we work to solve it?
EMPLOYEE BURNOUT CONTINUES TO INCREASE
- Employee burnout is growing: studies show that nearly three quarters of healthcare leaders report feeling burned out.1
- Employee loyalty is fading: 37% plan to leave their current hospital within the next two years and almost 69% plan to leave within five years.2
- Burnout is increasing turnover: Average turnover rate in healthcare is 20% and has risen nearly 5% - across all jobs in the industry - over the last decade.3
As this trend continues to grow, it’s no question that employee burnout and staff turnover come with a hefty price tag. The yearly hard dollar cost to recruit and train employees is already high, but when you add in the soft costs, you start to really see the bigger implications – it lowers morale and productivity, which in turn impacts patient care and patient outcomes. Additionally, costly staffing gaps put more pressure on the remaining employees, causing the problem to grow and compound.
Because of these issues, the average hospital has turned over 85.2% of its workforce since 2013, and with 31% of hospitals struggling to find candidates to fill open positions5, solving this growing problem is a top priority for healthcare organizations. To combat these challenges, health systems need a multi-faceted employee retention strategy – one that includes the expected perks like great compensation, benefits, and opportunities for advancement – but most importantly, one that addresses the root of the problem: process inefficiencies that are bogging down healthcare workers across the entire continuum of care.
In healthcare today, employees are suffering a “death by a thousand clicks6” because most hospitals use 10 or more various EHRs, EMRs and other user interfaces, sending employees toggling back and forth between various screens, playing “button Olympics.”
Aside from being stressful and burdensome to healthcare employees, these administrative inefficiencies result in a trillion dollar spend across the industry.
Working to reduce this burden has a huge impact on a hospital’s bottom line, but retaining top industry talent goes far beyond the numbers. A solid employee retention strategy needs to also consider factors like employee engagement and opportunities to do more meaningful work – this is where organizations have a tremendous opportunity to create both financial impact and increased employee satisfaction with artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence can take robotic tasks off the employee’s to-do list, allowing them to focus on higher-level tasks and initiatives. For front line staff, this means more time to spend with patients, which improves the patient experience and employee satisfaction. For back-office staff, this means more time spent on strategic initiatives and problem-solving, instead of mundane manual data entry.
Innovative health systems across the country are already using artificial intelligence and robotic process automation to alleviate employee burnout and staff turnover. And at Olive, we’re deploying a digital workforce to help “shift” these burdensome workflows from stressed healthcare employees to artificial intelligence. Olive is not another platform, another software, or another process to learn – Olive is the first digital employee built specifically for healthcare to replicate the robotic functions of a human employee, so healthcare employees can focus on more human-like initiatives.
“With Olive, we were able to reallocate 20 full-time employees to meaningful work, not the hours spent in front of their screens. There were no layoffs because there was so much work to do in the billing office that we just weren’t getting to before. Now these employees handle more fulfilling, complex tasks that require a human touch, and Olive takes the robotic workflows.” -Senior Director or Revenue Cycle, Midwestern Hospital
As your organization tackles the growing burnout that’s crushing the healthcare industry today, ask yourself these questions: What could your hospital do with more time? How many employees could Olive help focus on more meaningful work? How would those changes impact employee satisfaction and staff turnover at your organization? What would the financial impact be to your bottom line?
View our recent case study to see how Olive transformed this hospital's administrative operations, allowing their employees to focus on higher-value initiatives that boost morale, patient outcomes, and overall revenue recognition.
Sources:
2. http://www.leadersfortoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/LFT_Survey_Report_050817.pdf
3. https://business.dailypay.com/blog/employee-turnover-rates-in-the-healthcare-industry
4. https://smallbusiness.chron.com/average-cost-train-new-employee-44072.html
5. https://targetrecruit.com/tackling-the-problems-of-healthcare-staffing-for-hospitals/
6. https://khn.org/news/death-by-a-thousand-clicks/