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The Importance of Employee Engagement in Healthcare

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Ceca Foundation
The Importance of Employee Engagement in Healthcare

Every leader should emphasize the importance of acknowledging employees and their achievements in healthcare. It can build trust, revive strained relationships, and invigorate the work environment. Acknowledging employees doesn't have to be elaborate, but it should go beyond the annual review. Even a simple "thank you" for a job well done can make an employee feel valued. These small gestures can go a long way toward promoting employee engagement.


Barriers to employee engagement in healthcare


One of the biggest barriers to healthcare employee engagement is ineffective communication. Healthcare workers are often so busy providing care that it is hard to get information without interrupting the primary tasks of their job. They must learn to set priorities and communicate them clearly to each other. Employee engagement can start from any place, whether it is a hospital, clinic, or doctor's office. Read on for some ways to increase employee engagement in healthcare.



The highest-engaged employees in healthcare care about their hospital, their team, and the patients. This engagement can be seen in employees' discretionary efforts, their adherence to core patient care tenets, and proper medication administration. The high engagement has several key components. Below are just a few of the most important ones:

Impact of employee engagement on patient care


The Impact of Employee Engagement on Patient Care has recently been highlighted as a way to improve the quality of care. Employee engagement is linked to higher quality patient care, reduced mortality, and worker's compensation claims. Additionally, increased patient satisfaction is a key component of increasing profit margins. Healthcare facilities can improve care quality and reduce staff turnover by addressing employee satisfaction. The following is a summary of the findings. If you'd like to know more, download the full report here.


The study's findings show that employee engagement is associated with CQC ratings. The research found a statistically significant relationship between the advocacy score and CQC ratings, with a coefficient of 0.70 for overall engagement and 0.706 for each sub dimension. Although this relationship is not causal, it does support the conclusion that higher levels of employee engagement lead to higher quality patient care. Further, the findings also demonstrate that the CQC ratings can affect the quality of patient care in hospitals.


Measurement of employee engagement


A recent study from Towers Watson found that 44% of employees at U.S. hospitals reported high levels of employee engagement and felt emotionally committed to their work. This is significantly better than the global norm, in which only 35% of more than 32,000 full-time workers reported being highly engaged. However, this does not mean that all hospitals are equally engaged. The findings also show that a high level of engagement may not necessarily lead to improved patient outcomes.


The research indicates that daily engagement among healthcare workers improves clinical outcomes, decreases HACs, and reduces staff turnover. Positive engagement increases patient advocacy, loyalty, and medicare reimbursement. In addition, healthcare organizations that measure employee engagement are more likely to have higher staff morale. However, many employers do not measure employee engagement in their employees. That's because the measure is not as straightforward as it sounds. However, when implemented correctly, it can improve patient outcomes and increase profitability.

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