Press Release: Can Hospitals Curb High Rate of Staff Turnover?

Can Hospitals Curb High Rate of Staff Turnover? CHD Paper Shows How Physical Environment Impacts the Healthcare Workplace

Tuesday November 28, 6:42 pm ET

CONCORD, Calif., Nov. 28 -- Concern is growing about the high turnover rate of staff in hospitals and other healthcare workplaces. As administrators evaluate the best ways to increase employee retention and reinvent their reputations for being high-quality healthcare organizations, a new paper published by The Center for Health Design (CHD) shows that the physical environment plays an important role in improving the health and safety of staff, increasing effectiveness in providing care, reducing errors, and increasing job satisfaction.

"Improved outcomes in these areas may help in reducing staff turnover and increase retention -- two key factors related to providing quality care," said Anjali Joseph, Ph.D., Director of Research for CHD.

Key research findings presented in the paper include:

-- Efforts to improve the physical environment alone are not likely to help an organization achieve its goals without a complementary shift in work culture and work practices.

-- Proper design of healthcare settings, along with a culture that prioritizes the health and safety of the care team through its policies and values, can reduce the risk of disease and injury to hospital staff and provide the necessary support needed to perform critical tasks.

-- There is an urgent need to address the inherent problems in the healthcare workplace that lead to staff injuries and hospital-acquired infections, medical errors, operational failures, and wastage.

-- It is important to identify core systemic and facility design factors that lead to failures and wastage in healthcare, and then develop new solutions that address these problems within the context of culture changes and evolving models of care.

The paper, which is can be downloaded free, is the third in a series of Issue Papers funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as part of a grant to CHD to develop new Learning Tools for those planning and designing healthcare facilities. The first paper, which was released in July 2006, is on the impact of the environment on infections in healthcare facilities. The second paper, which was released in September 2006, is on the impact of light on outcomes in healthcare settings.

About CHD

The Center for Health Design is a nonprofit research and advocacy organization of forward-thinking healthcare, elder care, design and construction professionals and product manufacturers who are leading the quest to improve the quality of healthcare facilities and create new environments for healthy aging. For more information, visit www.healthdesign.org.