Workforce retention continues to be a struggle across the healthcare industry. Hospitals have seen increasing turnover rates, exacerbated by the pandemic. A 2022 survey found the average hospital turnover rate was nearly 26%, and 2024 data from recruitment and retention agencies report the average hospital turned over 106.6% of its workforce in the last 5 years. EMS teams also struggle with recruiting and retaining talented workers.
An engaged workforce that focuses on fulfillment and self-care is one factor in improving retention. Mobile Integrated Health (MIH) serves not only as an innovative, patient-centered model of care delivery, but also as a fulfilling staffing model that promotes employee satisfaction.
What’s driving healthcare turnover?
Burnout among healthcare workers has made a lot of headlines recently, but it’s not the only factor driving turnover. Staffing models, lack of resources, administrative burdens, and the overall work culture affect how people feel about their jobs.
Lauren Young Work, LCSW, of Palm Beach County Fire Rescue and chair of NAMIHP’s Wellness and Support Committee, shared that provider fatigue has been an ongoing trend since before the pandemic, but it has worsened in recent years.
“The physical, emotional, and psychological elements of the tasks we perform and the situations we are exposed to can cause us to grow tired in all those realms,” she said. “If an employee is engaged in a work environment that does not promote and encourage self-care and employee care, the capacity of health providers to sustain and maintain effective performance and wellness becomes a barrier to retention.”
Older healthcare providers are eyeing retirement and even retiring early to avoid the stresses of the job. Younger workers appear to be looking for a sense of belonging and purpose, and in many cases the organization’s culture is just as important to them as compensation.
Within EMS specifically, a recent report on EMS providers found that retention of quality personnel ranked No.1 as the most critical issue facing EMS today, followed by funding and reimbursement.
How MIH bucks the trends in retention
“I believe the mission of MIH is actually the most effective element of retention success,” Lauren said. “The focus on partnership, engagement in a shared mission, and the opportunity to see positive outcomes within patient care and the community are all highly motivating to an employee.”
MIH provides coordinated care, making team members essential parts of their community. They also build trust with patients and see them through their time of needs.
Paying attention to employee needs and motivations can help retain top talent – even without increases in compensation. Lauren said most challenges she sees with retention involve staffing models.
During a NAMIHP member meeting, Robbie MacCue of the EMS Leadership Academy shared a similar sentiment.
“People don’t like change they’re not a part of,” he said. Healthcare workers need hope, which means having clear goals, and the willingness and the way to accomplish those goals. MIH gives our healthcare workforce a chance to be engaged in positive change.
How to retain talent in MIH
It’s a challenging time for EMS, and agencies need hope. In his keynote address at the Fall MIH Summit, Chris Cebollero echoed MacCue’s sentiment about the need for a framework of hope.
“EMS is reactionary; we need to become anticipatory,” Cebollero said. “We have to create the future.”
He said to instill hope in a team, you must have an attainable goal, the will to achieve it, and a way to get there. MIH team leaders or EMS agency administrators should regularly check in with staff to ensure the team is functioning at its best. And to ensure that teams stay focused on the goal and have what they need.
Leadership can further contribute to retention by looking for peer support needs, embracing technology to enhance organizational efficiencies, and invest in opportunities for career growth for their teams.
Looking to MIH for clues – the answer to healthcare workforce retention?
“EMS and MIH are at the same risk of working in silos in the same way that the healthcare continuum is, yet EMS and MIH are incredibly well positioned to collaborate in that they are often in the same agency,” Lauren said.
She went on to explain that MIH provides a model for promoting peer partnership, employee engagement, as well as being able to see the positive outcomes of patients and families served. These elements help combat provider fatigue.
As EMS and healthcare workforce challenges continue to plague the country, MIH leaders are starting to identify lower turnover rates and increased employee engagement.
Attracting qualified healthcare professionals and then retaining them through career fulfillment and peer support will continue to be top of mind across the healthcare industry. Through its focus on outcomes, patient engagement, and care coordination, MIH offers a model of employee support that can translate to other areas of healthcare delivery.