Employees in the healthcare industry are increasingly being asked to accomplish more with less. Hospitals face financial cuts and major reductions in Medicare reimbursement, even while operating costs rise. Meanwhile, doctors, nurses, technicians, and other healthcare workers are required to provide high-quality care and maintain high patient satisfaction levels.
Here are the 5 Facts about employee engagement in healthcare you should know-
1. Employee engagement in healthcare is higher than global norms:
According to a 2012 report by Towers Watson, 44 percent of hospital personnel in the United States are highly engaged. To put it another way, just under half of those in charge of caring for the nation's sick, injured, and elderly feel supported and emotionally dedicated to their jobs. While this isn't a particularly impressive figure, it is better than international averages when seen in the context of the study. Only around 35% of the global population of over 32,000 full-time workers polled said they were extremely engaged.
2. Nurse engagement can be the difference between life and death:
During a patient's hospital stay, nurses have the most frequent contact with patients. It should come as no surprise, then, that high levels of engagement among nurses are reflected in the patient experiences. Gallup found that nurse engagement was the most important predictor of patient mortality rates in a study of more than 200 hospitals.
3. Employee engagement contributes to decreased operating expenses:
Turnover is a major issue in the healthcare industry. The overall turnover rate is estimated to be 20.6 percent, according to a 2017 Compensation Data survey of more than 11,000 healthcare employers throughout the US. In other words, slightly more than one-fifth of healthcare workers quit their jobs voluntarily or involuntarily in 2017. Each loss has a significant financial impact. According to Healthcare Finance News, if a single firm with a workforce of 3,000 employees loses 20% of its employees, each earning an average of $45,000, the turnover costs would total $27 million.
Retention is one of the most common indicators of employee engagement. This is true in the healthcare industry as well. According to the Advisory Board's engagement survey, engaged employees had a turnover rate of 9.8%. Even those who said they were “satisfied” had a percentage of 13.4 percent. Employees who are disengaged, on the other hand, outperform the industry average with a turnover rate of 21.5 percent.
4. Patient care from engaged employees is safer and more thorough:
Employees in the healthcare industry put in long hours to ensure that patients are in a safe environment. However, regardless of how low the danger of Hospital-Acquired Conditions (HACs) is, every facility has them. During a patient's stay, some issues may go unnoticed. According to 2012 research, just 14% of patient injury events suffered by Medicare recipients were recorded by hospitals.
5. Engagement and patient satisfaction scores are closely linked:
For a variety of reasons, patient satisfaction is crucial in the healthcare industry. Positive patient experiences, first and foremost, contribute to long-term therapeutic success and improved patient recovery. In addition, the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey measures patient satisfaction. The standardized survey, which is mandated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for all hospitals in the United States, assesses patient experiences in a variety of areas, including communication with doctors and nurses, hospital cleanliness and quietness, and overall hospital rating.
The survey results are important because they affect Medicare reimbursements for medical facilities. Higher reimbursements are given to hospitals with good ratings, whereas lesser reimbursements are given to hospitals with low scores. When it was first implemented in 2012, hospitals stood to gain or lose 1% of their Medicare reimbursements, or around $850 million per year. In 2017, CMS increased the reimbursement wagered threshold to 2%. That's not a little sum of money.
Hospitals with a significant number of engaged personnel, in particular, have a competitive advantage. Employees that are engaged are more likely to provide thorough and responsive treatment, resulting in higher overall HCAHPS scores.
