As we close out the calendar year, hospitals and health systems are in the thick of planning cycles, and if you ran a clinician survey in the last couple of months, you’re likely in the thick of assessing the results and action planning. How can you make sure this isn’t just another pulse point, but a strategic opportunity?
By December, survey results are often already processed, department‑by‑department. Sending out those insights in November and early December ensures that leaders across service lines – nursing, physician groups, operations, finance – are briefed, aligned, and ready for intervention planning. This isn’t window dressing: you’re preparing to launch real, targeted actions before issues crystallize.
This timing aligns with planning cycles. Workforce, HR, quality, and clinical operations leaders are drafting 2025 budgets, identifying priorities, and weighing where to invest to stabilize teams. The intelligence you deliver now — and the interventions you plan — will feed directly into those decisions.
What to Keep in Mind as You Build Your 2026 Action Plan
- Calculate the stakes.
Turnover isn’t just a “people problem.” Replacing a single physician can cost between $800,000 and $2.3 million, depending on specialty. As you plan interventions, model the ROI of keeping even a handful of at-risk clinicians – not just from a retention perspective, but in terms of recruitment, onboarding, revenue continuity, and care quality.
- Translate insights into targeted interventions.
It’s not enough to know that burnout is widespread or that a given unit is at risk. Your next step must be diagnosing which clinicians feel disengaged and specifically why. Atalan’s data-driven models, working off your own EHR and HR data, can uncover specific departure triggers for each individual – from workflow friction to compensation misalignment – that generic survey themes miss. - Tailor by clinician, team, and specialty.
Your peers know the danger of “one-size-fits-all” fixes. Some clinicians may struggle because of shift scheduling; others because of EHR burden or lack of peer support. By December, your planning should include differentiated interventions: mentoring, staffing changes, schedule redesigns, or tech support – all tuned to the specific departure triggers you surface. - Embed evaluation into your process.
A rich action plan doesn’t stop at implementation. Use December to build metrics for tracking: Who is engaging in the intervention? Are risk scores improving? Are resignations leveling off? By building in evaluation from the start, you make your strategy dynamic – and accountable. - Cross-functional alignment is non-negotiable.
You know better than anyone: workforce challenges don’t live in HR alone. December is a critical moment to ensure your C-suite – CEO, CFO, COO, CMO, CHRO, and beyond – are all on the same page. When interventions are informed by real data and tied to financial and operational outcomes, you can make the case for investment confidently and strategically.
Why This Isn’t Just Another Retention Play
You could send another pulse survey in Q1. But that would be reactive, and you’ll likely only hear from the same subset of clinicians who always respond. That would mean waiting until after clinicians have spoken – or worse, after they leave. Atalan doesn’t just help you listen: it helps you see, predict, and act. In this category-defining moment, you’re not chasing retention. You’re embedding resilience.
As you wrap up your year-end planning and prepare for 2026, use December as the launchpad. Turn insights into interventions. Turn risk into retention. Turn data into action.
Learn more about predicting resignations up to 12 months in advance.