Medical providers are critical to fostering a healthy community. Yet, from doctors to nurses, healthcare workforce trends continue to point to more skilled professionals leaving the industry, leading to medical provider shortages becoming increasingly evident.
McKinsey reports that, by 2025, health systems will face a shortage of between 200,000 and 450,000 nurses. Although anticipated physician shortages have slowed in recent years, there’s still a notable gap in need versus availability.
The Exodus of Medical Providers
A significant exodus of medical providers is playing out across the country. One report from Elsvier Health found that 47% of US healthcare workers, including 31% of global clinicians, plan to leave their current position in the next two to three years.
Why Is Healthcare Losing Medical Providers?
Hospital staffing challenges are robust already, and a further employee exodus could be detrimental. The first step, then, is to consider why. According to one study, working conditions, moral stressors, and burnout are some of the most impactful reasons people leave the industry.
What are the most significant reasons for medical providers leaving major hospital chains? Consider the following:
- Burnout and job dissatisfaction: It’s clear that burnout from their work, the stress, and the overall satisfaction in the workplace leads to turnover. Burnout in medical professionals occurs at all levels of experience.
- Administrative overload: Having too much to do or not having the ability to achieve goals, both professional and personal, are among some of the most common reasons for administrative overload.
- The desire for provider autonomy in healthcare and flexible practice models: Studies have found that medical providers’ higher degrees of organizational and economic autonomy relate directly to higher organizational identification, meaning they enjoy their jobs. Flexible healthcare employment could facilitate better work-life balance.
- Financial incentives from alternative employment opportunities: Being paid fairly, especially for the amount and type of work done, could affect a medical provider’s desire to leave healthcare.
Impacts on Major Hospital Chains
The direct impact of a loss of qualified medical providers is easy to see. Longer wait times for patients and less attentive care are simply due to a lack of personnel to provide that care. How is the departure of medical providers affecting patient care quality in major hospitals? Consider the direct impacts a loss of qualified medical providers creates.
- Operational challenges: Staffing shortages lead to operational challenges including operational failures, delaying tasks and clinical decisions, and disrupting patient care workflow.
- Quality of care and patient outcomes: A lack of trained physicians to handle key tasks could lead to a limited amount of care provided, and ultimately that could lead to patients not receiving the support they need, ultimately changing their health outcomes.
- Hospital financial impacts: A lack of quality medical providers in healthcare leads to less service to patients, fewer payer billings, and a drop in cash flow. This can ultimately lead to the need to reshape hospital strategies to mitigate ongoing loss.
Impact on Hiring in Healthcare
To combat the changes in healthcare hiring, hospitals and other healthcare systems must focus on new approaches to address the increasing shortages, attract more talent, and offer quality care to patients with reduced staff.
What innovative recruitment strategies can healthcare institutions adopt to combat these staffing challenges? Consider these specific strategies:
- Increased competition: Some medical providers recognize their value, leading to position or location changes due to compensation variations. With increased competition, some healthcare providers will need to develop a strategy to compete by providing better, more competitive benefits.
- Rise of non-traditional staffing models: Reducing the number of employees needed at locations, such as by enhancing telehealth recruitment, could lessen the blow and open the door to remote workers. Locum tenens and numerous other short-term gap-filling professionals may be necessary.
- Adjustment in healthcare recruitment: Changes to employer branding and healthcare recruitment strategies are necessary to provide a better reach for talent. Partnering with hiring networks to boost hiring could be beneficial.
- Utilization of technology: The use of technology and innovation in recruitment to improve overall strategies that leverage data could help maximize marketing budgets for talent and create more targeted outcomes.
Strategies for Retention and Recruitment
Recruitment efforts must be robust enough to draw attention to the culture, benefits, and overall opportunities workers have when choosing your location over others. To combat worsening hospital staffing challenges, it becomes critical to retain the quality talent you do have. Medical providers and healthcare assistants consistently point to job satisfaction as a core concern. How can hospitals improve job satisfaction to retain their healthcare providers? Consider these strategies:
- Cultivate a positive workplace culture: Continuously work to create a positive, encouraging, and inclusive workplace culture. Build into that an adaptive and supportive work life, such as through more flexible scheduling.
- Enhance job satisfaction: One of the most effective ways to boost healthcare job satisfaction is by providing professional development opportunities, continuing education, and leadership development programs.
- Utilize data to drive strategies: What is the role of technology in transforming healthcare recruitment and retention? It provides analysis of why your team works with you, why they leave, what they need to stay, and, most importantly, how your opportunity compares with others.
Building a Stronger Tomorrow for Healthcare
There is certainly a gap in medical providers on the horizon, but actions taken today to determine what people need to remain in the field can reduce the impact on hospitals and patients. Consider the importance of amplifying your understanding of your workforce and the future of healthcare recruitment. Turn to MRINetwork for hands-on support, data analytics, and resources to restructure, rebuild, and reduce risk to medical providers and patients.