How improving workplace culture can become your new employee retention strategy

For practice leaders, keeping front-desk, billing and clinical support staff in place is its own daily operation, one that gets harder every time a trained employee walks out the door.

But the fix probably costs less than administrators may assume, and it isn't a bigger paycheck

Jeff Whitehorn, MBA, LFACHE, ACC, founder and CEO of Whitehorn Coaching & Consulting LLC, is scheduled to present "Culture CPR: Administer Immediately to Invigorate Culture and Boost Employee Retention" at the Medical Group Management Association's fall 2026 conference, his third time speaking at the event. He is the author of "Leadership Treasure: 25 Bits of Gold Discovered From 25 Years as a CEO."

Whitehorn's argument is aimed at the people who run day-to-day operations: Workplace culture, not compensation, is what keeps front-line staff from leaving. He points to first-year turnover in medical practices and hospitals that runs between 25% and 35%, a persistent drain on training budgets and scheduling stability. Rather than relying on signing bonuses or short-term pay incentives, Whitehorn outlines a framework he calls Culture CPR, built around celebration, purpose and honestly assessing the reality of what is and isn't working day to day. Leading with purpose alone, he said, costs nothing and can measurably raise how appreciated staff feel and the odds they stay.

Whitehorn addressed how a practice's culture becomes visible to patients from the moment they walk in, how administrators can catch staff who are quietly struggling before burnout pushes them out the door, a pattern he calls quiet cracking, and how these strategies scale differently for a small independent practice versus a larger, multi-site operation.

Physicians Practice spoke with Whitehorn ahead of his MGMA session about what practice administrators can do starting now.