Tracey Cumberland lays out the critical elements of effective employee onboarding processes, including six reasons to invest in an onboarding program, and nine best practices for starting one now.
You have heard it before – your employees are your greatest asset. To help protect this asset, you can’t overstate the importance of a structured onboarding process in healthcare to assist in supporting your team. A strong onboarding process helps to ensure a consistent, comprehensive, and supportive experience for new hires. We would understand why having a comprehensive onboarding process would be best for your new employees, but have you considered how it best protects your organization or practice as well? Whether you’re welcoming a new physician or nurse practitioner to your practice, a director of finance for a surgery center, or a team member to your hospital access team, how they are introduced can significantly impact patient care, team morale, productivity, and the overall success of your organization.
Lack of an effective onboarding process can contribute to several serious challenges, including increased medical errors, high staff turnover, poor patient experience, low employee morale and engagement, and compliance violations — all with critical consequences.
Yet, even with those possible impactful outcomes, many practices still treat onboarding as an afterthought — a few quick introductions, logins to various networks and apps, and a stack of HR paperwork. Unfortunately, this approach often leads to confusion, frustration, and a high turnover rate.
High turnover is having a serious impact on medicine today. Frequent staff changes disrupt everything from patient care to driving up costs associated with recruiting and training. Having the revolving door of employees hurts everyone, and investing in a formal onboarding program is not just beneficial — it’s essential. Here are some benefits of an effective onboarding process:
Healthcare is complex, and new providers and staff need time to learn workflows, systems, and culture. A structured onboarding process accelerates this learning curve by clearly laying out expectations, resources, and support systems from the start.
When new hires are given a roadmap, they more quickly feel confident in their roles, and can focus on delivering high-quality patient care instead of struggling to figure things out on their own. This, in turn, improves productivity and reduces costly mistakes.
At the heart of every medical practice is the patient experience. Disorganized onboarding can create inconsistencies in how patients are greeted, scheduled, treated, and followed up with.
By taking the time to train all new providers and staff on your practice’s standards for patient communication, care protocols, and service expectations, you ensure that patients receive consistent, high-quality care — no matter who they interact with. Better patient experiences lead to stronger patient satisfaction scores, loyalty, and referrals, which should equate to a greater volume of patients.
Turnover in healthcare is expensive. Recruiting and training a new provider, for example, can cost tens of thousands of dollars, not to mention the disruption it causes to your team and your patients.
Studies consistently show that employees who experience a thorough, supportive onboarding process are much more likely to stay long-term. Hospitals that invest in a streamlined onboarding process report up to 20% higher retention rates among new clinicians (Becker’s Hospital Review). When new hires feel valued, supported, and connected to your mission, they’re more invested in their roles — and less likely to leave when challenges arise.
We have discussed the importance of Culture. Culture isn’t just about having pizza parties and casual Fridays — it’s about shared values, mutual respect, and a commitment to excellence. Onboarding is your first opportunity to immerse new hires in your culture.
By communicating your mission, vision, and values early, and modeling the behaviors you expect, you set the tone for a positive, cohesive workplace. New staff should understand not just what they are doing, but why it matters. This sense of purpose is a powerful motivator.
Healthcare operates in a highly regulated environment. Failing to properly train staff can lead to compliance violations, medical errors, and even legal trouble.
An effective onboarding process includes thorough education on HIPAA regulations, documentation standards, billing practices, safety protocols, and any other legal requirements specific to your specialty. Being proactive about compliance from day one helps protect your practice — and your patients.
Healthcare delivery is a team sport. Physicians, nurses, medical assistants, and administrative staff all rely on each other to deliver safe, efficient care.
Onboarding should introduce new recruits not only to their direct responsibilities but also to how the entire practice functions as a team. Information such as: “Who handles what? How do effective handoffs happen? and What is the chain of communication?” are important for new hires to comprehend. When everyone understands each other's roles and workflows, collaboration improves, and both patients and the entire team benefit.
Best Practices for Successful Onboarding- get a plan!
If your practice or healthcare organization doesn’t have a formal onboarding plan yet, it’s not too late. Here are a few tips to get started:
Final Thoughts
Quality patient care is ultimately what every healthcare organization strives for. You need to be able to not only attract but also maintain quality staff to provide the best care. In review, the phrase “Your people are your greatest asset” couldn’t be truer in today’s healthcare environment. Approaching onboarding as a strategic priority — rather than an afterthought — lays the foundation for engaged employees, satisfied patients, and a successful practice or team. Investing in a strong onboarding plan not only protects your team, but your organization’s time, finances, and reputation, allowing for sustainable success.
The opinions and views expressed in blog posts on Curi’s site belong to and are solely those of the individual author, and do not necessarily reflect those of Curi Advisory or Curi Advisory’s parent or affiliated companies or their members, insureds, clients, customers, or partners. This post is for informational purposes only and it should not be construed or relied upon as medical advice. If medical care is needed, please consult a qualified professional.
The content contained herein was generated by Curi with the assistance of an AI-based system to augment the effort.
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