Measuring and addressing physician burnout causing high churn
The home care industry is experiencing rapid growth and increased demand, which has led to higher turnover rates among employees. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there were almost 2 million home health workers in 2016 and another 1.5 million by 2026—and while this growth might seem promising at first glance, many experts believe that it will strain resources across all industries as well as cause problems for consumers who depend on their service providers every day. This is concerning both for the future pipeline of caregivers and for the quality of care offered to clients.
A business's greatest challenge is retaining its employees. The high turnover rates in businesses force owners to constantly train new employees. This results in insufficient time being allocated to new workers for them to learn, experience, and develop trust. Even though many business owners struggle with this issue, home care providers face it the most.
According to a study by Benchmark reports, caregivers are quitting at a rapid pace, showing that caregiver turnover rates in elderly care are at an all-time high- approximately 82% as of 2019. High caregiver turnover rates are a big source of concern for home care agencies.?
Caregiver churn has a significant impact on the quality of care provided to elderly clients and may drive an agency out of business. An unexpected caregiver change can also cause a lot of distress to elderly clients who become habitual of receiving consistent care. From a business standpoint, caregiver turnover reduces the quality of care provided and increases operational costs for home care agencies.
Recent research by Center for American Progress, indicated that the cost of losing a caregiver is approximately 16% of the annual salary. Additionally, for a caregiver earning an average of $12/hour, the agency has to spend around $4,000 for hiring and replacing the same caregiver if the tables turn.
Caregiver Churn is Costly:
The healthcare industry is known for its high levels of stress and emotionally-taxing situations. Many healthcare facilities face staffing shortfalls, leading to remaining staff members to becoming overworked and exhausted, both physically and mentally. In the home health care field, employee burnout is all too common; caregivers must travel long distances, keep packed schedules, and provide complex and challenging treatments for their many patient clients. When stress levels can no longer be managed, burnout occurs. It is estimated that up to 50% of all caregivers in the home health care sector will experience burnout at some point during their careers.
Employee churn is known to be a triple-edged sword for the home care agencies.
·??????First, staff shortages force an agency to turn away potential clients.
·??????Secondly, it increases the risk of missed visits and makes existing clients unhappy and forces schedulers to scramble at the last minute.
·??????Thirdly, caregiver churn creates a continuity gap: Clients who had become comfortable with the same consistent routine result in poorer client outcomes.
Job satisfaction is an important component of a company’s ability to recruit and retain top talent, making employee churn less frequent and less of a headache. Workers often feel that they aren’t getting the hours they want, in the locations of their choice, and with the compensation they wish to work for.
This, in turn, can lead them to seek employment elsewhere or even leave the industry entirely. However, it can be daunting for agencies to meet the needs of employees in an ever-shifting environment.
Solution: Curbing the churn with modern tech solutions
Technology can help make the impossible possible. An operation with smart home care software paired with mobile technology can go a long way in relieving inefficiencies that contribute to departures and burnout. Research shows that modern home care software increases caregiver utilization by 10-20 percent, reduces weekly travel time and recruitment costs by 33.5 percent and 15 percent respectively, and improves diagnostic accuracy by 20-30 percent. With in-home care and biometric research, artificial intelligence promises to automate tasks, which helps deliver a faster diagnosis and offer better care. Agencies can offer their staff the support they need, mitigate everyday challenges, and tackle churn most efficiently in the following ways:
Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: Tomorrow and Today:
Artificial Intelligence is now considered one of the most important IT research areas, promoting industrial growth. Just like the transformation of power technology led to the Industrial Revolution, AI is heralded today as the source of breakthrough.
Within the healthcare continuum, COVID-19 has accelerated investments in AI. Over half of healthcare leaders expect artificial intelligence (AI) to drive innovation in their organizations in the coming years. At the same time, around 90% of hospitals have AI strategies in place.
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In 2019, the global home healthcare market was estimated at USD 281.8 billion (Source: Grand View Research). By 2022, it is forecast to reach USD 353.56 bn (Source: Markets and Markets).
Wave a Goodbye to Paper:
GPS-enabled home care management software helps home health care professionals streamline client care, record-keeping and electronic visit verification, enabling them to eliminate tedious tasks such as completing timesheets.
Operational Transparency:
Mobile software allows caregivers, clients, and agency staff to communicate with one another in real time, providing a platform for accurate data collection and reporting. It also facilitates transparency among all parties involved, which leads to trust between them.
Smart Scheduling - Leveraging AI to manage and schedule the workforce:
AI-driven solutions can schedule the workforce faster, more accurately and in a fairer way than current spreadsheet-based models. The technology allows for a consistent and systematic approach, eliminating human bias and error, creating fairer planning schedules, and reducing the managerial bandwidth required to oversee the scheduling process.
AI Can Improve Worker Management and Training:
AI can help caregivers to be more efficient. For example, a caregiver might use artificial intelligence to track their time in order to make sure they are spending enough time with each patient and family member. The AI would also be able to identify when there is a need for additional training or mentoring from staff members so that the employee knows what needs improvement.
The Conclusion- Preparing for the Future:
The home care industry is experiencing rapid growth and increased demand, which naturally means higher turnover rates. Caregiver churn has become a severe concern for home care agencies; however, with the right technology, agencies can prevent employee turnover far before an employee considers leaving.
Technology such as artificial intelligence, which often uses machine learning and predictive analytics, has the power to predict employee churn by taking into account specific indicators. Through AI, agencies can study large chunks of data—such as attrition rates—and map these patterns for the future to make adjustments to their business model and increase employee satisfaction. Ultimately, the best remedy for employee churn is to predict it and take steps to prevent it.
References:
Professor Shafi Ahmed | Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH, MBA | Dr Amine Korchi | Prof. Dr. David Matusiewicz | Aman H. Bhatti, MD | Iris Adler, MD | Greer Deal | Stan Kachnowski PHD MPA | Harvey Castro, MD, MBA. | Dr. Fatih Mehmet Gul | Dilshaad Ali | Osama Elhassan, Ph.D., FIHASI | Dr Edward Fitzgerald | Edward Marx | Jhonatan Bringas Dimitriades, MD | Usman Khan | Jo?o Bocas | Prof. Dr. Ingrid Vasiliu-Feltes | Lubna Dajani | Simon Philip Rost | Philippe GERWILL | Ali Juma AlAjme | Rashid Chotani, MD, MPH, DTM, FRCPH | Ahmad Sharif MD, MPH | Yasir Hashmi, M.D. | Mazin Gadir PhD MSc BEng PMP Prosci LSSGB EBAS Agile | Ian Hogan
CEO at Digital Salutem | Advisor | Speaker | LinkedIn Growth for Leaders & Entrepreneurs | Host of HealthTech Leaders Dinner
1 年This is a serious issue right now and unfortunately, it doesn't seem to get better any time soon. We must do some serious thinking about this. Healthcare needs an apparent revolution and not only about Technology. We must be thorough and ask some brutal and honest questions. This is the only way we will get somewhere, otherwise nothing will change for decades to come.
Tech Manager at Globant | AI & Data Specialist | Startup Mentor | Empowering Women in Tech
1 年Thanks for sharing Zahid A. This is shocking. I really hope #digitalhealth can help here!
Chief Medical Officer PreventScripts: We help providers scale health behavior change across their population achieving clinically significant Blood Pressure and Weight reductions- Open to Board of Director Roles
1 年Physicians really DO want patients to be better, how we address burnout at PreventScripts is providing our customers scalable identification and treatment of metabolic syndrome across the population. Automation of disease prevention for primary care providers eases their burnout.. increasing prevention related revenues eases burnout… chronic disease remission eases burnout… Doing the “same thing” (managing chronic disease as it progresses) over and over is the definition of insanity( physician employment).
Healthcare Exec | Change Agent | Innovator | Technology Evangelist | Serving Leader
1 年Thank you for sharing, Zahid. We have a big opportunity to reduce administrative burden on the care givers using technology. Clinicians should be working at the top of their licences that is taking care of patients - what motivated them to be caregivers in the first place. Technology is far more suited and efficient at managing data entry and record keeping among many other administrative tasks. We are still ways away from unlocking the full potential of technology being a true value add and a reliable partner for the care givers.
Clinical Research | Machine Learning
1 年More and more research is showing this. Unfortunately most administration of hospitals does not take into account the emotional and mental toll on a doctor due to the work they do and instead focus more on the numbers of 'performance'. Healthcare professionals are humans with lives. If you chose to do medicine, doesn't necessarily mean that you don't want to have a life outside of work. The sooner admin staff realises this, even senior consultants realise this, the sooner things can start going towards the right direction.