What should Caden do to find out what is causing the turnover?

Caden had just joined a physicians’ office as their director of operations.

The practice was made up of 22 physicians, 6 advanced practice providers, and 54 staff, which included nurses, medical assistants, front office staff, and billing staff. The medical director, Jack, met with Caden in his first week on the job and challenged him to provide a remedy for the practice’s high turnover rate, which was close to 50 percent the previous year.

“We keep losing staff nearly as fast as we hire new people. I need you to find out what is going on and fix it,” Jack said. “Other physicians are complaining that staff is not adequately trained and that their patients are not receiving quality care because of it. It is absolutely frustrating that our patients come in for routine visits and our staff do not know who they are nor how to handle the simplest of tasks to help them with their problems.

Please fix this.”

Caden immediately began to work with the clinic manager, Jennifer, to discover the reason for high turnover and to implement a plan to improve things. Jennifer had been previously tasked with hiring all staff in the clinic.

Jennifer and Caden began interviewing candidates together and Caden soon discovered that part of the problem resided in how Jennifer rushed through the hiring process.