Aside from the obvious correlation between employee engagement and overall institution success, the reasons to improve employee engagement in healthcare are actually a lot more complex and exceptionally important. In the healthcare industry, employees are responsible for saving lives each and every day, meaning when someone isn’t completely focused, the risk of accidents and fatalities increase.
Reduced Turnover Rates
Though certainly not the most tragic result of lack of employee engagement in healthcare, turnover rates still represent one of the most costly consequences hospitals and other healthcare facilities face. According to a study conducted by New York University, turnover rates for just nurses can easily devour as much as 5% of a hospital’s total budget. Fortunately, improving employee engagement through the use of programs and other resources has proven to reduce these rates in some institutions by as much as 50%.
Increased Safety
Hospitals are already inherently dangerous places, meaning even simple mistakes can cost lives. By introducing employee engagement programs, you can effectively help your employees stay focused on providing the best care to your patients, keeping both staff and patients safer. Hospitals who utilize employee engagement techniques even notice a dramatic reduction in workers comp claims, with some noting drops of up to 61% in only three years, as well as a standard 15% improvement in patient safety.
Better Experience – Greater Satisfaction
Happier employees equates to better service, which in turn results in your patients enjoying a higher standard of service and greater overall satisfaction, boosting HCAHPS scores. Though your employee’s happiness and job satisfaction may seem insignificant to the big picture, it actually represents one of the largest contributing factors to benefits directly related to patient satisfaction, including increases in quality care and profits as well as fewer fatalities.
Fatality Prevention
Merely 20 years ago, the Institute of Medicine discovered that almost 100,000 people a year were dying as a result of preventable mistakes. You may think that improvements to modern medicine would have reduced these numbers over the years, but unfortunately the opposite is true. Recent studies emerging from John Hopkins Medicine reveal that those numbers have actually more than doubled, with over 250,000 Americans succumbing to these types of accidents each year. Luckily, something as simple as introducing employee engagement resources and focusing more on your staff’s health and satisfaction can effectively reduce these numbers. A thorough study from NHS England even claims that for every 10% increase in employee engagement, the number of fatalities decreases by almost 2.5%.
Overall, employee engagement in healthcare is vital for success. It can save lives, it can save your hospital tons of money, and it can create a stronger bond between your patients and healthcare providers. Call 629.777.8989 or fill in the free consultation form in the sidebar to learn more about how our software can positively impact the lives of the patients and visitors you service every day.