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If you have recently onboarded a new doctor, or you already have a staff of excellent physicians, you probably want to keep them as happy as possible. After all, replacing a physician is labor-intensive and expensive. In fact, replacing a physician can cost a practice upwards of a million dollars or more.
Clearly, it is more advantageous to find out what makes your physicians happy.
Top 6 Ways to Retain Physicians
Making your staff happy is easier than you might think! Here are 6 steps to improving physician satisfaction at your organization.
Assess physician satisfaction
Use a simple survey to measure the happiness of your staff and to find out what is important to them. Some larger studies have shown that autonomy is important, for example, as is relief from burdensome clerical or administrative duties.
Show your physicians that you care
In a recent survey of more than 500 medical professionals, 59 percent said they felt underappreciated at work. Feeling underappreciated can trigger an avalanche of negative emotions, which can cause even the most dedicated physician to distance themselves emotionally from their job – in time, they may even distance themselves physically by working elsewhere.Use the information you learn in the physician satisfaction survey as a guide to showing your staff that you care.
Create and maintain a better work environment
Large workspaces, the best support staff, and nifty new equipment are always a great way to attract new physicians, of course, but your practice needs to make constant improvements to keep your most senior-most physicians happy.
Consider a physician liaison
A physician liaison provides support that makes doctors’ lives easier by helping new hires, providing resources, and providing information about the organization’s services. While they are not managers, as they do not participate in negotiations or grievances, physician liaisons are anchors for doctors. They may retrieve white coats for the physicians, for example, or help doctors use all the tools available to them for optimal patient care.
Create a supportive community
Like most people, physicians have a deep emotional need to feel connected to others who have the same goals and values. Creating a supportive community, one that emphasizes social connections, mutual understanding, and resource-sharing, can help physicians feel connected to one another in ways that boost retention.
Use physician scheduling software
A physician scheduler can contribute to doctor happiness by streamlining the scheduling process, supporting autonomy, improving efficiency, and boosting professional satisfaction. Doctors love advanced physician scheduling software that allows them to classify which shifts they prefer or dislike, record their favorite shifts, and helps them avoid consecutive shifts. Implementing shift scheduling software is also a great way to show your staff that you care and that you are responsive to their needs.
While we started out offering emergency medicine scheduling, ByteBloc offers the shift scheduling software that keeps doctors of all specialties happy. Our software has advanced features, such as multi-location schedules, highly customizable summary statistics, customizable print layouts, flexible schedules with a variety of day types, and more.
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