Organizational Commitments - Develop Engaged Leadership
"Leaders within organizations, including medical schools, residency programs, hospitals, and health care systems, have a role in promoting physician well-being in their communities of physicians. Leaders could establish physician well-being as an organizational priority by including well-being initiatives in strategic planning efforts, using organizational awareness strategies to better identify and respond to emerging well-being challenges, and integrating well-being measures into assessments of organizational performance. By fostering opportunities for social connection and shared decision making, leaders could build engagement and develop a healthier, more productive workforce."
from the Charter on Physician Well-Being, JAMA. 2018;319(15):1541-1542. doi:10.1001/jama.2018.1331
from the Charter on Physician Well-Being, JAMA. 2018;319(15):1541-1542. doi:10.1001/jama.2018.1331
Research, Articles & Ideas
Counting the Cost of Burnout
Burnout has a dollar figure: medical errors, patient satisfaction, loss of productivity, and reputation and malpractice suits are all the downstream effects of wornout clinicians. Sometimes the only way to engage C-suite leadership is to make the financial case that they can't afford not to pay attention to physician burnout.
Based on the research of Cathrine Sinsky, MD, Tait Shanafelt MD, et al, the American Medical Association has created an easy to use tool so you can make the case to the C-Suite that organizational changes have to be made.
Based on the research of Cathrine Sinsky, MD, Tait Shanafelt MD, et al, the American Medical Association has created an easy to use tool so you can make the case to the C-Suite that organizational changes have to be made.
Typical Steps in Organizational Journey Towards Transformation
In the same study by Shanafelt and Sinsky, a useful chart is provided that observes most organizations that have attempted to address physician distress follow a relatively predictable path and stay and novice or beginner stage.
Chief Wellness Officer
In 2017, Dr. Tait Shanafelt, MD left Mayo Clinic and took the first known academic medical center Chief Wellness Officer role at Stanford Medicine. (Although, Barbara Hernandez should get some credit for playing a similar wellness role at Loma Linda University for many years, albeit not a physician and not a C-Suite leader.)
Since it was Dr. Shanafelt's 2014 Mayo Clinic Proceedings report on burnout that set the national medical community on fire about the topic, everybody looked to this move as a significant move and suddenly hospitals began investigating some sort of bird-dog role for wellness at their institutions. But is this just another attempt at a one-shot panacea that hospitals and executives can point to and say, "We've addressed burnout. Now back to the salt mines?" The key, according to many thought leaders on this topic, will be to how much authority this new position has and what resources will be given to them.
Dr. Paul DeChant is a family physician, former CEO of Sutter Gould Health Foundation, and Deputy Chief Health Officer at Simpler Consulting, an IBM Watson Health company. He spends a lot of effort talking to C-Suite leaders about physician burnout and what their leadership can do to combat it through organizational efforts. According to DeChant, "A key to the role is having an effective way to impact and improve the clinical workplace, not simply support the worker. Therefore, reporting responsibility should be to the CEO, and decision authority should be on par with the COO, CFO, CMO, and CNO. In that way they can work as a team to address workplace dysfunction."
By the way, if you're thinking of creating a CWO role in your organization, consider anteing up $12K to go to Stanford's WellMD training they've started. It's a tidy sum, but if it prepares you to succeed at this new institutional challenge, you might end up saving your employer millions of dollars over the coming decade and your fellow physicians a whole lot of suffering.
Sample CWO Job Description
Source: “Making The Case For The Chief Wellness Officer In America’s Health Systems: A Call To Action, " Health Affairs Blog, October 26, 2018.DOI: 10.1377/hblog20181025.308059
Since it was Dr. Shanafelt's 2014 Mayo Clinic Proceedings report on burnout that set the national medical community on fire about the topic, everybody looked to this move as a significant move and suddenly hospitals began investigating some sort of bird-dog role for wellness at their institutions. But is this just another attempt at a one-shot panacea that hospitals and executives can point to and say, "We've addressed burnout. Now back to the salt mines?" The key, according to many thought leaders on this topic, will be to how much authority this new position has and what resources will be given to them.
Dr. Paul DeChant is a family physician, former CEO of Sutter Gould Health Foundation, and Deputy Chief Health Officer at Simpler Consulting, an IBM Watson Health company. He spends a lot of effort talking to C-Suite leaders about physician burnout and what their leadership can do to combat it through organizational efforts. According to DeChant, "A key to the role is having an effective way to impact and improve the clinical workplace, not simply support the worker. Therefore, reporting responsibility should be to the CEO, and decision authority should be on par with the COO, CFO, CMO, and CNO. In that way they can work as a team to address workplace dysfunction."
By the way, if you're thinking of creating a CWO role in your organization, consider anteing up $12K to go to Stanford's WellMD training they've started. It's a tidy sum, but if it prepares you to succeed at this new institutional challenge, you might end up saving your employer millions of dollars over the coming decade and your fellow physicians a whole lot of suffering.
Sample CWO Job Description
Source: “Making The Case For The Chief Wellness Officer In America’s Health Systems: A Call To Action, " Health Affairs Blog, October 26, 2018.DOI: 10.1377/hblog20181025.308059
Breaking Bread Together
Nobody will deny that physicians are more disconnected from each other than they were 20 years ago. EHRs, online CME, the loss of physician lounges, increased regulations: these pressures have conspired together to cut down the amount of time physicians feel free to build collegiality together.
In randomized trials, Mayo Clinic demonstrated that eating a meal together enhances physicians' sense of meaning, reduces burnout and helps create a sense of community in the workplace.
In randomized trials, Mayo Clinic demonstrated that eating a meal together enhances physicians' sense of meaning, reduces burnout and helps create a sense of community in the workplace.