Laudio, healthcare’s first Staff Relationship Management platform, has been launched nationwide to solve the industry’s pervasive burnout problem. Developed by Boston-based healthcare IT entrepreneurs, Laudio uses artificial intelligence to predict and prevent staff burnout, through more frequent, timely, and relevant manager interactions. This new software-as-a-service solution reduces turnover rates, which saves even a medium-sized acute care facility millions of dollars on annual replacement costs.
In an era defined by cost reduction strategies, managing staff burnout, or churn, has become a top priority for all health systems. This priority is perhaps most critical for nurses, one of the largest segments of the hospital workforce. For example, the average nursing staff turnover rate is 16 percent, per year, with the cost of replacing one nurse averaging $66,000. As a result, the average hospital is forced to spend $5M-$10M annually on nursing turnover, alone. This expense is even greater when extended to all health system staff, beyond nursing.
Founded by a team led by Russ Richmond, MD, Laudio was developed following his recovery from a nearly-fatal skiing accident. According to Richmond, during his lengthy hospital stay, he received high-quality and compassionate care from a large number of bedside staff, but also came to understand that his caregivers felt both underappreciated and overburdened. Motivated by his first-hand experience and his previous success building nurse and physician-based technology solutions, he founded Laudio to address the root causes underlying staff burnout.
“We set out to understand why high-performing staff were disconnected from their workplace and burning out in their role,” said Russ Richmond, MD, the CEO at Laudio. “Once our research identified that the manager was a key leverage point across a variety of the issues, we developed technology to equip these managers with data intelligence, personalized recommendations, and workflows to proactively and sustainably engage with every member on their team. Our goal is to facilitate one billion timely and meaningful manager-driven interactions through Laudio by 2028.”
The Laudio Staff Relationship Management platform is delivering results. “As hospital leaders, we realize that our managers play a critical role in building a supportive and positive team culture,” said Joel Ray, VP Patient Care Services/CNO at UNC Rex Hospital. “Laudio gives our managers insights into their staff that previously took hours and days to manually uncover, plus the integrated tools to build meaningful relationships that lead to stronger employee engagement and retention. It has changed how managers manage.”
Laudio aggregates vast amounts of data imported from the health system’s data sources. Using research-based benchmarks, Laudio’s algorithms calculate turnover risk for each staff then continually generate data-driven observations. Laudio quickly becomes the manager’s unified digital workflow by eliminating the manager’s need for multiple software logins, paper-based notes, and time-consuming work-arounds, while allowing them to collaborate with colleagues.
“We know that the right engagement with the right staff, at the right time, can prevent burnout and reduce turnover. With Laudio, we now have the technology to make this possible, and to improve workplace culture in health systems everywhere. We also look forward to measuring and quantifying impacts on patient satisfaction, safety, and quality, as well as extending the tool to physicians”, said Dr. Richmond.
“We believe that a more engaged staff achieves better outcomes and engagement begins with the frontline manager,” said Mr. Ray. “Laudio gives our managers an innovative way to complete their workflows, cultivate stronger relationships, and connect to their staff on an unprecedented level.”
