10 Stats About the State of the Healthcare Workforce

Healthcare is facing a crisis among workers today. These past few years have been challenging, and you can't look anywhere without seeing something about clinical burnout. Health system executives are realizing that the impact goes far beyond losing a provider or nurse. It has a real effect on patient care and experience and on the bottom line. Here are ten stats that tell the story about where we are with the state of healthcare workforce engagement.

As a result, staff retention has become a top priority for health systems.

1. Healthcare leaders report a focus on recruitment and retention.
2. Recent surveys also bear out that staff satisfaction and retention is the top priority for executives.

It will be an uphill battle if information here is to be believed:

3. 39% of healthcare employees are considering leaving their jobs (an increase over the previous year)
4. 1 in 5 doctors is planning to leave in the next two years according to the AMA

But the effort is absolutely critical if health systems are going to get control of the costs:

5. The average cost of turnover for a bedside RN is $40,038 and ranges from $28,400 to $51,700, causing a hospital to lose $3.6 million to $6.5 million per year. Each percent change in RN turnover costs or saves the average hospital $270,800 per year.
6. Hospitals are turning to travel nurses, who receive an average hourly rate of $120 an hour. For every 20 travel RNs eliminated, the average hospital can save $3,083,600.
7. The cost to replace a physician is $500k - $1M. The AMA has created a calculator to help systems understand this cost. For a system with 500 physicians, the cost could be as high as $12M a year.

The right solutions can drive these costs down, increasing revenue and improving margins.

8. Studies by IDC show employees spend on average 20% of their hours searching for information necessary to do their jobs effectively. An employee app can help reduce wasted time by 15%, potentially increasing per employee revenue by as much as 5%.
9. According to Gallup’s State of the American Workplace survey the turnover rate for disengaged employees is 10 percent higher than engaged employees and engaged employees are 27% more likely to report excellent performance.
10. Research by Staffbase found “that by capitalizing on the reach of mobile devices and creating relevant experiences and opportunities for reciprocity, mobile employee apps dramatically boost employee engagement. Companies utilizing an employee app were found to drive engagement levels to above 75%, which can save them anywhere from 25 to 65% on turnover costs." 

At trade shows and conferences last fall, many executives shared their thoughts about healthcare worker experience. One of the top comments was that healthcare organizations need to think about their employees the same way they think about their patients and use similar tools and techniques like using a mobile platform to pull together all the tools staff need in an easy-to-access mobile native experience. Watch for more to come on what an experience like that could look like.

The original version of this page was published at:  https://www.goziohealth.com/blog/10-stats-about-the-state-of-the-healthcare-workforce