Short answerSCRS reports patient facing staff turnover at sites of 35% to 61% a year, roughly double the typical 10% to 37%, with 85% of departing staff going to sponsors and CROs. It can take 6 to 12 months for a site to get a study back on track after turnover. Study staff average 17.5 hours per study per month in sponsor training.
Coordinators and site staff
| Statistic | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Annual turnover of patient facing staff (recent) | 35% to 61% | SCRS |
| Typical annual turnover in prior years | 10% to 37% | SCRS |
| Departing staff who went to sponsors or CROs | 85% | SCRS |
| Time to get a study back on track after turnover | 6 to 12 months | SCRS |
| Sites struggling with salary competition | 42% | Clinical Leader |
| Sites struggling with career progression | 36% | Clinical Leader |
| Sponsor training time per study per month | 17.5 hours | SCRS |
Principal investigators
| Statistic | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Investigators classified as one and done (Duke and FDA survey) | 54.2% | DaVita Clinical Research |
| North American PIs since 2006 with no further trial | 40% | MedCity News |
| PIs filing only one Form 1572 in 2020 | 66% of the global landscape | Tufts CSDD via Applied Clinical Trials |
| Alternative estimate of the one and done share | Below 20% | Clinical Leader |
What does this mean for a site?
Every hour a coordinator spends hunting for patients competes with visits, data, and training. When staff turn over, recruitment relationships often leave with them. Sites that run recruitment as a documented system, rather than as one coordinator's personal network, keep their patient flow when people move on. See how to build a physician referral network.
Get your study in front of the right local physicians
TrialNotice builds a physician referral pipeline around one active study. We identify relevant local physicians within driving distance of your site, send study aligned direct mail, follow up by email and LinkedIn, track engagement with recipient level QR codes, and route warm responses into your site team's workflow.
Talk to TrialNoticeSources
- Society for Clinical Research Sites, Workforce Challenges at Clinical Research Sites
- Clinical Leader, "Site Staffing On The Upswing, But Still A Challenge"
- Society for Clinical Research Sites, "Reducing Site Training Hours: A Call to Action"
- DaVita Clinical Research, summary of the Duke and FDA investigator survey (Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications, 2017)
- MedCity News, "Is clinical trial design complexity behind the high turnover rate for principal investigators?"
- Clinical Leader, "The One And Done Investigator: A Clinical Trial Story"
- Applied Clinical Trials, "Tracking Change in the Global Investigative Site Landscape" (Tufts CSDD)
