Becker's Hospital Review

17 CLINICAL LEADERSHIP At Banner Health, engagement is a clinical strategy By Paige Twenter P hysician burnout costs hospitals an estimated $500,000 every time it results in a departure, according to industry estimates. Multiply that across a 60,000-person workforce, and culture is not a so initiative but a balance sheet issue. at's the premise behind Banner's "one team" strategy, which treats employee engagement, clinical quality and financial sustainability not as competing priorities, but as compounding ones. e system's chief clinical officer, Marjorie Bessel, MD, says the math is what makes the case. Across 33 hospitals and more than 400 outpatient sites in six states, the nonprofit system employs nearly 60,000 employees. Putting a number on culture "Every time a physician leaves, it's very expensive. ere's lots of different quotes out there" on how much this attrition costs, Dr. Bessel said. "It's at least half million dollars, probably on average. So from a business perspective, it makes sense for us to invest. From a quality and safety perspective, it makes sense for us to invest." "Engaged team members — whether you're a physician, an APP or a nurse — always have better quality and safety scores," she said. "If you are a burnt-out physician, you are more likely to be involved in a safety event than a non-burnt-out physician." Employee engagement, quality and safety, being a high-reliability organization and ensuring financial sustainability all reside in the system's "one team" strategy, which emphasizes the interconnectedness of each employee's role and every initiative. "ere's a ton of science about people engagement that leads to your ultimate success as a business," Dr. Bessel said. "We are profitable. We know we need to be profitable. We track our finances [and] we know that we have to deliver more quality and safety scores, which we track and have processes for." Cultivating happiness in medicine In 2019, Banner Health launched a program called "Cultivating Happiness in Medicine," which is designed to improve clinician well- being. e program is based on research from Stephen Swensen, MD, a senior fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and professor emeritus at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science in Rochester, Minn. Dr. Swensen has researched connections between employee well-being and organizational outcomes, including burnout reduction, staff fulfillment and long-term healthspan — arguing that kind leadership practices are not just ethical imperatives but measurable drivers of engagement and performance. Last year, Banner recorded the organization's lowest-ever self- reported physician burnout. Physician and advanced practice provider retention held steady year over year, too. e CHIM program funds off-hours social events for physicians and APPs across Banner's network — more than 600 events annually. Participation is voluntary, and more than half of the system's physicians and APPs have taken part, Dr. Bessel said. Outings range from lunches and dinners to hikes, pickleball games and painting activities. e system gives structured discussion prompts to guide conversations that build genuine collegial connection, in keeping with Dr. Swensen's six-component model. Physicians choose the activity; Banner covers the cost. In exchange, participants submit brief reflections on the prompted discussion topics, which feed organizational learning and help Banner track what's resonating across its workforce. A new metric is year, Banner launched a "great place to receive care" metric to track team member engagement. Dr. Bessel described the metric as "one notch above" other engagement benchmarks, such as the "great place to work" measure. Survey questions about Banner being a great place to receive care assess ambassadorship for Banner Health's brand — i.e., a deeply involved employee. Examples of an ambassador employee are those who proudly wear their Banner Health T-shirts out in public, Dr. Bessel said. Or, if someone in the grocery store check-out lane mentions Banner, the people who would turn around and join the conversation. e system is up 2.6 points on top-box responses to the "great place to receive care" question and is around the 70th percentile, according to Dr. Bessel. In addition to surveys, Dr. Bessel said the system measures employee engagement through recognition programs. A new one allows coworkers to select and send digital cards to celebrate one another's work. Before the one-month mark, employees have already shared 10,000 cards. e results, Dr. Bessel said, reinforce what Banner aims to show — that investing in people is not separate from the system's growth strategy. It is the strategy. "We will continue to invest in team members. ey are the way forward," Dr. Bessel said. "e world is changing. Technology is changing. At the end of the day, people will still be taking care of people." n Image Credit: Banner Health

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