Chief Healthcare Executive Roundtable: The struggle to retain staff

Hospitals and health systems continue to see challenges in retaining doctors, nurses, technicians and other key roles, and burnout is cited as a key factor.

A panel of top healthcare leaders discussed the problems of retaining retention amid high levels of burnout during the Chief Healthcare Executive Roundtable. We’re presenting a series of videos from the roundtable, and the latest video focuses on strategies for improving staff retention and improving the health and well-being of clinicians and other staff members.

The panel includes:

Robert Garrett, FACHE: CEO, Hackensack Meridian Health

Benjamin P. Levy, M.D.: clinical director of medical oncology, Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center

Deepak L. Bhatt, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A.: director, Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital, Icahn School of Medicine

Kevin Beiner: chief operating officer, Northwell Health

Stephanie Wierwille: moderator; EVP, strategy and innovation, BPD

Here are some highlights of the conversation.

Unsustainable cycle

Since the pandemic, doctors and nurses have continued to go above and beyond the call of duty. That’s admirable but not really sustainable, Dr. Bhatt notes.

“Nurses are often getting burned out because we're asking them to do more and more, often not appropriately increasing their pay, and that's something they shouldn't have to tolerate,” Bhatt says. “Likewise, physicians: you tell them to do more, and in general they'll say, ‘Yes, thank you, may I have another,’ but at a certain point that isn't sustainable either.”

Bhatt says health systems need to take a holistic approach to improving the workplace.

“If you have nurses and physicians who are happy and feel their efforts are justly rewarded and directly benefiting their patients, that's a win for everybody,” he says.

Levy says that since the pandemic, health systems have seen more burnout and “moral breakdown,” which is contributing to staffing shortages.

“We're having real challenges with physician and nurse retention, and this is across the country,” Levy says. “Some of it is related to burnout, and some to these additional tasks that aren't leading to the improvement of a patient.”

Tackling the problem

Aiming to address some shortages, Northwell Health partnered with New York City to develop training courses for high school students to gear up for careers in nursing, physical therapy and pharmacy.

“At the end of it they go into college-level programs and become a talent pipeline for us,” Beiner says.

Hackensack Meridian has incorporated a virtual nursing program to support bedside nurses and also help answer questions from patients.

“Those virtual nurses help nurses at the bedside, freeing them from some administrative tasks so they can spend more time on direct patient care,” Garrett says. “That has helped on burnout and stabilized our retention rates among frontline nurses.”

Hackensack Meridian has also improved behavioral health benefits for staff and created a 24/7 employee mental health emergency hotline, he says.

AI: Benefits and concerns

Healthcare leaders also see the potential for AI to reduce stress on staff, including documentation tools to help clinicians save time in updating records.

Patients are also using AI tools to learn more about their health, and that’s placing some more demands on health systems.

“At our own institution we've seen a 30 to 40% spike in MyChart messages in Epic since the advent of AI, so there are a lot of questions coming in,” he says.

Bhatt expresses enthusiasm for AI, but he also says hospitals and health systems can’t ignore the fact that some workers are worried that AI technology is going to put them out of work.

“It's also important to acknowledge that there's some angst out there about AI and its potential to displace people's jobs,” Bhatt says. “As we innovate in AI, we need to recognize that fear and address it head-on, and say we're not trying to bring in AI to replace anybody, but to augment what people are doing.”

You can see all of the videos from our series on the Roundtable page. We divided the wide-ranging roundtable into smaller segments designed for busy healthcare leaders.

The videos are free to watch, but you will need to fill out some information to access them. Check out the conversation for some valuable insights and perspective on some of the top challenges in the industry.

• Read more: The Chief Healthcare Executive Roundtable: Wrestling with costs, change, and the need for innovation