How many therapists leave a behavioral health agency in a year?

Rates differ by setting. In Philadelphia's public mental health agencies, 25% of 130 therapists left within a year. A sample of 42 Ohio community mental health agencies reported 26% turnover in 2011, and among staff in substance use treatment organizations implementing an evidence-based practice, annualized turnover was 31% for clinicians and 19% for clinical supervisors.

What share of mental health professionals are burned out?

Pooled across 33 studies with 9,409 participants, the estimated share of mental health professionals with high emotional exhaustion is about 40%. In the American Psychological Association's 2023 Practitioner Pulse Survey, 36% of the licensed psychologists surveyed agreed or strongly agreed that they feel burned out.

Do AI scribes reduce clinician burnout?

In a randomized crossover trial with 160 outpatient clinicians at an academic medical center, both ambient AI scribes tested reduced personal and work burnout scores. Time in the EHR outside scheduled hours changed little in that trial.

What does a clinician need to use My Best Practice AI Notes?

A clinician needs the telehealth add-on, at $20 a month per professional, and can then use AI Notes after eligible telehealth sessions. AI Notes cost $2 per note, or $60 per month per professional for unlimited notes, and the clinician reviews, amends, and signs each draft.

Does adding a biller or scheduler cost more on My Best Practice?

No. An owner can add unlimited schedulers, billers, and bookkeepers with no per-seat fee. The first clinician costs $39 a month and each additional clinician $19.

What does My Best Practice cost for a 12-clinician group practice?

The core subscription for twelve clinicians is $248 a month: $39 for the first clinician and $19 for each of the other eleven. With telehealth at $20 a month for every clinician, the total is $488 a month.

How group practices reduce therapist turnover

Researchers visited agencies in Philadelphia's publicly funded mental health system, met 130 therapists and 36 supervisors, and followed them for a year. By the end of that year, 25% of the therapists and 17% of the supervisors had left their agencies, and the study found that staff with greater burnout were more likely to be among them.

Physicians who report too little time for documentation are more likely to report burnout, and public behavioral health staff in Oregon named documentation as one of the reasons people leave. This is a solvable problem. One option a group practice owner can consider is giving scheduling and billing to non-clinical staff and taking routine paperwork off each clinician.

How do group practices reduce therapist turnover?

Burnout was one of several factors. In studies of behavioral health clinics, therapist turnover was also higher inclinics with a poor organizational climate, and staff turnover was higher inOhio agencies that were larger and paid a lower maximum wage. Clinics with the best organizational climates lost 10% of their therapists a year, and those with the worst lost 22%.

Other studies asked clinicians whether they planned to stay. Attwo community mental health centers, clinicians who reported supportive supervision had lower emotional exhaustion and were less likely to plan to leave. In asurvey of 2,587 clinicians in federal shortage areas, 42% expected to stay in their practice at least another five years, and more of them expected to stay when they described an effective and supportive administration, fair pay, a good work-life balance, and a job that let them practice the full range of services they wanted. Among186 community mental health providers followed for 12 months, job stressors were related to plans to leave, and the providers' own characteristics were related to who left.

A systematic review of 62 studies of mental health professionals found that workload and relationships at work are key determinants of burnout, and that role clarity, professional autonomy, fair treatment, and access to regular clinical supervision appear to protect against it.

Most of these studies were done in community and public mental health clinics and in practices in federal shortage areas. A group practice owner decides several of these factors directly, including supervision, pay, and how much paperwork each clinician carries.

Does documentation burden make therapists leave?

Staff in Oregon's public behavioral health system named documentation burden as one of five reasons people leave. The Oregon evidence comes from interviews and the physician evidence below comes from surveys, so together they show documentation load and burnout occurring together, not that one causes the other. In a qualitative study of Oregon's public behavioral health workforce, 24 providers, administrators, and policy experts named the five reasons: low wages, documentation burden, poor physical and administrative infrastructure, a lack of career development opportunities, and a chronically traumatic work environment.

Many said documentation and reporting often did not fit in a standard work week. One participant said, "This work is so hard, and those requirements on top of it [are] wearing our folks down."

Most of the measured evidence on documentation load comes from physician studies. In a survey of 1,792 Rhode Island physicians, those who reported poor or marginal time for documentation had 2.8 times the odds of burnout, and those with heavy EHR use at home had 1.9 times the odds. A time-and-motion study of 57 ambulatory physicians found nearly two hours of EHR and desk work for every hour of face-to-face time with the people they treated. At a Canadian academic mental health hospital, 69.3% of the physicians surveyed said the EHR always or almost always contributes to their burnout symptoms.

Does therapist burnout affect client outcomes?

In a study of 2,223 clients treated by 49 therapists, clients of therapists who reported more disengagement (one dimension of burnout) and lower job satisfaction had worse PHQ-9 and GAD-7 outcomes. The study found an association, not proof that burnout caused the worse outcomes. A systematic review of turnover in community behavioral health agencies describes the harm of turnover itself to client care and outcomes as hypothesized, not established.

Which administrative tasks can a group practice move off its clinicians?

On My Best Practice, a clinician can draft notes with AI Notes, a client can complete intake forms before the first appointment, and a private-pay client can receive billing documents without the clinician preparing them.

A clinician can use AI Notes to generate documentation after eligible telehealth sessions. She gets a draft note, can keep anything she entered during the session, and can amend the draft before she signs it. After a couple, group, or family session, a clinician can write one note, and that common note is automatically sent to each individual’s chart. A clinician can also schedule outcome measures such as the PHQ-9, GAD-7, OCI-R, AAQ-II, and DERS. They go out with reminders, clients complete them electronically, and the system automatically scores and charts them. All the clinician has to do is click the Metrics tab and see the client's scores, as ourmeasurement-based care implementation guide describes.

As our FAQ explains, a private-pay client can receive invoices, superbills, and receipts automatically, without the therapist or the owner preparing them. At the end of each month, the owner can open the payroll report and read what each person is to be paid instead of calculating it, as our post on running a 15-clinician practice describes.

An owner can give scheduling to non-clinical staff. A new client can complete intake forms, questionnaires, contracts, and consent forms with electronic signatures through the client portal before the first appointment. Appointment reminders come with the core subscription. An owner can add an unlimited number of schedulers, billers, and bookkeepers for free. The first clinician costs $39 a month and each additional clinician $19, so a 12-clinician group pays $248 a month for the core subscription, or $488 with telehealth for every clinician.

An owner who wants clinicians to stay may consider regular supervision for every clinician, since the studies above link supportive supervision with fewer plans to leave. The owner can make it clear how their EHR can streamline their process of providing high-quality care to clients without stress or a lot of time. The EHR can automate many tasks and make the rest frictionless.

Open a 14-day free trial and set up one clinician's intake forms and outcome measures in it.

Disclaimer: This post is for general information only. It does not provide legal, ethical, or clinical guidance, and it is not a substitute for advice from an attorney, your licensing board, your professional association, or a qualified clinical supervisor or consultant. The studies described here were done in specific settings, and their findings may not apply to your practice. Before making decisions about your staff, your compliance obligations, or client care, consult the appropriate professionals.

References

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