The Great Resignation hit the health care industry hard, with an estimated 20% of its workforce leaving in the past three years.

Comparing healthcare employee satisfaction to 27 other industries, a January Qualtrics report showed healthcare jobs ranked last. The survey also revealed four in 10 workers considered quitting.

Suzanne Kelley, human resources vice president for HCA Healthcare and HealthONE, said the company is leading the industry in addressing these challenges.

“Now more than ever, we are committed to meaningful workforce development through investment in training, retention and policy legislation,” Kelley says.

Kelley says the number of nurses leaving the workforce each year has doubled from 40,000 to 80,000 annually in the last decade.

“Across the country, the attrition rate national average is 37%, and HealthONE’s nursing turnover falls well below the national average. Simultaneously, the country’s aging population is increasing demands on a healthcare system that is still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic,” she says.

HealthOne, which operates seven acute care hospitals, a pediatric hospital, a rehabilitation hospital, plus free-standing emergency departments, ambulatory surgery centers, urgent care and occupational medicine clinics, physician practices, and imaging centers, makes the physical, mental and emotional well-being of its caregivers a top priority.

In addition to working to reduce the frequency and severity of job-related injuries and illnesses to promote a safe and secure work environment, HealthOne provides 24/7 on-site security and training to learn how to de-escalate situations that may turn violent.

Providing needed employee support

HealthOne also provides support to promote its employees’ mental health and emotional well-being, including:

• Nurse Care is a free and confidential counseling program that helps nurses manage anxiety, balance work and life responsibilities, practice self-care and handle common nursing-related issues.
• A partnership with Optum Well-being Resources provides employees and their immediate family members with up to five free counseling sessions per topic per year.
• The Talkspace mobile app is a secure and confidential app that allows colleagues to regularly communicate with a licensed therapist via text or live video from their phone or desktop.
• The Sanvello Premium mobile app offers daily mood tracking, coping tools, and community support.
• The Thrive Forward Toolkit provides well-being resources, with access to articles, tools, strategies, and videos to help colleagues thrive personally, building endurance for themselves as caregivers.

Preventing burnout is a challenge, says David Moeai, Brighton Hospice-Denver administrator. That’s why the company works to maintain reasonable caseloads to protect employees physically and mentally.

“One of the biggest challenges that we face is caregiver burnout. Three years of pandemic conditions coupled with our current healthcare worker shortage has made for difficult working conditions,” he says.

“Even the best care providers can struggle tremendously if they don’t have ample time to do the work for which they’ve been trained,” he says.

Most of Brighton’s employees say their caseloads are lower with the company.

“With our Brighton model they see fewer patients, more often, and have more time to collaborate with their care teams and community healthcare partners,” he says.

The company provides access to counseling and other professional resources through its Employee Assistance Program.

“We also have a full-time bereavement coordinator that offers her services regularly to members of our team that are experiencing emotional or mental hardship.”

Coping with challenges of the pandemic and its aftermath

The pandemic added new pressures to an already challenging business.

Jeanine Lally and her husband Thomas started Bloom Healthcare 22 years ago to provide hands-on care in assisted living centers and private homes to help patients age in place.

The pandemic hit their clients hard, and the company quickly pivoted to provide telehealth services.

“Geriatric patients can’t go without being seen,” Lally says.

So, Bloom Healthcare worked to provide iPads and iPhones to the communities it served so it could continue to see patients as needed.

Because infection control has always been part of the company’s protocol for working with vulnerable patients, the company had a good supply of personal protective equipment to keep its team members safe.

While Bloom Healthcare hasn’t struggled with staffing, many partner organizations do.

“That makes what we do even more important,” Lally says.

In addition to keeping their employees safe physically, Bloom Healthcare also worked to protect their mental health. They started sending care packages and scheduled virtual parties and meetups. The company also worked with an online therapy group to provide grief counseling.

“Our patients were hit hard early in the pandemic and we lost some of them,” Lally says. “We tried to circle the wagons and give our people what they needed when they needed it.”

Serving more clients with acute needs

The AllHealth Network provides behavioral healthcare services to over 18,000 children, adults, and seniors. Its services include counseling, psychiatry, crisis services, substance abuse treatment, adult acute treatment unit, criminal justice system services, vocational and social rehabilitation, and school-based services.

When the pandemic hit, AllHealth quickly transitioned from face-to-face counseling to telehealth, says Bill Hendricks, president, and CEO.

“Before the pandemic there was resistance to telehealth services and ther was a long felt belief that you needed to have a personal presence to engage with a client,” he says.

But AllHealth counselors quickly discovered that telehealth counseling worked well, and now many clients prefer connecting with therapists without having to commute to their appointments.

“It’s been a major win for clinicians, clients, and the community,” Hendricks says. “It’s allowed us to see more folks and have fewer no-shows.”

Unfortunately, post-pandemic more people need AllHealth’s services.

“Many of our therapists deal with more complex cases as people struggle with unprecedented societal pressures. People are struggling with political polarization and financial uncertainty, which is leading to increased anxiety levels, increased drug use, and higher suicide risk.”

That increased demand for services led AllHealth to hire more staff and focus on providing additional support to its employees.

Nationally, the turnover rate for mental health providers is 32%. AllHealth’s rate is 18% and traditionally remains below the national rate.

“We’re always looking for ways to improve employee satisfaction,” Hendricks says.