Grow your healthcare practice with better team wellbeing

With so much focus on patient wellbeing, it can be easy to overlook staff wellbeing. Healthcare design and fitout company, Evoke Projects, explores how better team wellbeing will help grow your healthcare practice.

Care for the carer

Caring for the carer is a sound strategy for growing and sustaining a successful business, according to Evoke Projects. After all, the ability of the healthcare team to care for patients is obviously paramount. Interestingly, after observing the interrelationship between provider wellbeing and patient care, Professor T Bodenheimer and Dr C Sinsky proposed that the USA Health Care Triple Aim – which is to improve population health, enhance patient experience and reduce costs – should be expanded to include a fourth aim of "improving the work life of health care clinicians and staff".

Evoke Projects reveals that in the UK, Professor Michael West and Dame Denise Coia described how low wellbeing and associated strain are linked to increased medical errors amongst healthcare workers and could also impair decision-making – having a negative impact on medical errors and patient outcomes. They also provided evidence suggesting that doctors with high levels of burnout had between 45% and 63% higher odds of making a medical error compared with those who had low levels.

The business case for better team wellbeing

Evoke Projects says that research on team wellbeing and business success is convincing. For example, 'The Workplace Design for Well-being' report by Haworth states how companies perform better and have stronger teams through workplace well-being initiatives. Their report states that when health and wellbeing are actively promoted in an organisation:

• The organisation is seen as 2.5 times more likely to be a best performer
• Employees are 8 times more likely to be engaged
• The organisation is seen as 3.5 times more likely to be creative and innovative
• The organisation is seen as 4 times less likely to lose talent in the next year
• Reducing absenteeism will contribute to business growth and lower operating costs. According to a recent Harvard Business Review case study, Johnson & Johnson’s leaders estimated that their wellness programs had cumulatively saved the company US$250 million on healthcare costs over the past decade.

Furthermore, Glenn Llopis writes in Forbes about the traditional mindset of seeing staff health and wellness benefits as a “cost” when, in fact, they are “an engine for growth”. He asks, “Why wouldn’t we want to invest in individuals in every way possible?”.

This brilliant observation is backed up by the healthcare designers at Evoke Projects. They have seen clients who invest in staff wellbeing, reaping the benefits in terms of motivation, loyalty, energy and attendance.

Workplace wellbeing initiatives

Evoke Projects goes on to share how a wide-ranging study into Health and Wellbeing Interventions in Healthcare was undertaken in the UK, which cited recent research by Bevan et al. that the most common wellness initiatives currently implemented include:

• Healthy eating initiatives
• Subsidised gym memberships
• Support for increased physical activity (e.g. pedometer challenges)
• Access to occupational health (OH) support
• Employee assistance programmes (EAPs)
• Stress-management programmes
• Training for line manager in wellbeing symptoms and referral

In assessing the effectiveness of these and other wellbeing initiatives, the researchers concluded that there was not a 'winner'. It recommended that healthcare staff should have a choice of which initiatives they engage with because there was not a one-size-fits-all solution.

Physical healthcare design contribution to team wellbeing

Providing a positive workplace experience for healthcare staff is another way to improve wellbeing. The healthcare designers at Evoke Projects recommend these ideas for your next healthcare fitout or refurbishment:

• Spaces for proper sleep or rest within shift-work practices
• Improve air filtration systems as part of a new healthcare fitout, while smaller scale healthcare refurbishments can incorporate plants that naturally filter the air. Read this for more ideas
• Healthcare design and fitouts that conform to WELL Building StandardTM guidelines. Visit their website for more information or talk to the healthcare design team at Evoke Projects
• Create pleasant outdoor spaces – for example, courtyards, rooftops and balconies – as well as inside breakout areas for relaxation, eating and mingling
• As well as providing medical fitout and facilities to support team wellbeing, managers should lead a cultural change that recognises carers need to take care of their own wellbeing to be able to function at their best.

If you've got any questions about your practice design and fit out, get in touch with a member of the Credabl team today  or call 1300 27 33 22, or you can call the healthcare design and fitout experts at Evoke Projects on 1300 720 692.