Watch as AMA President Bruce A. Scott, MD, reveals which health systems, hospitals and medical groups have earned recognition from the 2024 AMA Joy in Medicine™ Health System Recognition Program—and hear from three currently recognized organizations about their well-being endeavors.
This AMA program recognizes organizations that have committed to improving physician satisfaction by supporting policies and programs that support well-being, promote teamwork and boost operational efficiency. Recognized organizations have met evidence-informed program requirements.
Congratulations to all the honorees!
Each recognized organization has demonstrated competency in six distinct areas: commitment, assessment, leadership, teamwork, efficiency of practice environment and support. Their achievements are recognized at three levels: Gold, Silver and Bronze.
Video transcript
Dr. Scott: Hello, and welcome to the American Medical Association's joy in Medicine Health System Recognition Program for 2024. Today, we honor hospitals, health systems and centers that have implemented effective, evidence-based strategies to address burnout and better support the well-being of our physician colleagues.
I'm Dr. Bruce Scott, president of the AMA and a physician in a small private practice in Louisville, Kentucky, where I experienced the everyday challenges of our profession firsthand. I see my colleagues struggling and in some cases leaving the profession to which they have dedicated their lives. Whether practicing independently or working in a large hospital or health system, physicians are increasingly frustrated by a fractured health care system that has placed too many obstacles in their way and too many burdens on their shoulders.
This is why the AMA created the joy in Medicine Health System Recognition Program in 2019 to recognize hospitals, health systems and centers that are true leaders in reducing physician burnout and to provide an evidence-based roadmap for leaders to implement similar strategies in their own hospitals and systems. Organizations are evaluated on their strategies to boost teamwork, operational efficiency, leadership development and efforts to dismantle barriers to care that physicians so often face.
This year, we're proud to recognize 62 organizations across three categories: gold, silver, and bronze, including the first federally qualified health system to ever receive the AMA gold level recognition. To date, the AMA has recognized nearly 150 organizations through the Joy in Medicine Program for their burnout reduction strategies. This work impacts hundreds of thousands of physicians across the U.S. It's truly important work that our AMA is leading and I couldn't be more proud.
Today we'll hear from three organizations the AMA has recognized about the ways they've addressed institutional challenges and the impact their work has had on reducing physician burnout and returning joy to the practice of medicine. Congratulations to all of this year's honorees, including the three we will hear from next. Thank you.
Maria Ansari, MD: It feels amazing to have so many of our Permanente Medical Groups participate in the AM Joy in Medicine Program and be recognized for the work that we're doing to invest in our physicians and their wellness. The Permanente Medical Groups all come together under one umbrella called the Permanente Federation, and I am the co-ceo of the Federation with my counterpart, Dr. Ramin Davidoff. In that forum is where we share best practices and set our strategic priorities. And one of the main strategic priorities is really physician wellness. We need to support a practice where people want to stay and work long into their careers and so it has to be sustainable. It has to be engaging, it has to be joyful. Our physician retention rate is over 90% and they tend to spend their entire career with us. That makes me proud because I find that our physicians are leaders in their field and they feel supported in their work.
I think the real opportunity right now is to use technology to help us with the wellness efforts. One of the things that we've tried to do to reduce pajama time and the administrative burden is use ambient AI scribe technology. Our physicians saved about one hour on average of their pajama time. And the other thing that was really nice about that is that they could actually engage with their patient better. A lot of our physicians are calling it a complete game changer.
The partnership with the American Medical Association and the Permanente Medical Groups has been really successful, and it's actually helped elevate all our medical groups to have that strategic focus and the operational support to really deliver an improving physician wellness. I'm really proud of it and it's been very successful.
Dr. Scott: Thank you to the leadership of the Permanente Federation for your long-standing commitment to physician well-being. Up next, we'll hear from the leadership of Ochsner Health in New Orleans.
Nigel Girgrah, MD: It feels wonderful to be recognized by the AMA Joy in Medicine program. It certainly validates our commitment to workforce well being with our physicians. Physician leadership development is one of our five strategic areas of focus. And the reason that we're invested in that is that the quality of physicians one over leader is probably the number one driver of professional fulfillment. And so we've invested a lot in developing curricula for our physicians and the feedback has been extraordinarily positive.
We also recognize that the Office of Professional Well-being is by nature an office of influence and collaboration. But in order to create success, it's all about partnering with other business units. That's the only way to get culture change within the organization. The American Medical Association have been great partners, not just in the area of workforce well-being, but in a number of different areas.
I feel very proud of the work that the organization has done in supporting the mental health needs, destigmatizing mental health. We have started that work in terms of removing, stigmatizing mental health questions from our credentialing application and our peer reference form. It's part of a four-pronged approach to mental health. One part is certainly raising awareness about mental health. The second part is actually measuring mental health. Measuring PTSD, measuring burnout, measuring drivers of burnout. A third component would be expanding our support services outside the traditional EAP. Trying to get a little more upstream. And then finally, yes, normalizing or destigmatizing mental health. That's probably what I'm most proud about.
There's still so much work that needs to be done. There are a lot of departments that are hurting, but we're committed to making things better for our physicians.
Dr. Scott: Thank you Ochsner Health for your continued work to reduce the mental health stigma of physicians who are seeking care too often face. Up next, we'll hear from Bayhealth of Delaware.
Tom Vaughan, MD: The Joy in Medicine Program has been a great thing for us. To be associated with so many prestigious organizations throughout the country, places that we've really looked up to for their wellness program. So to be mentioned in the same light as that has been a real honor for us. And it really is a journey.
The unique thing about us is it really was a roots start with just a bunch of doctors got together and said, let's see what we can do and let's do something. And it's really blossomed to be a major contributor to the culture at Bayhealth now expanding to the entire organization. The first thing we did with our group, and it took over a year, is develop our credo based on three parameters of respect, compassion and excellence. We have a reward for medical staff members, physicians and apcs called the credo award. Winners have said, well, I've been working for 25 years and this makes it all worthwhile.
In addition, we've had something called the Phix-It Line. The Phix-It Line is a communication channel to communicate the problems that the medical staff was having to whoever could deal with the problems and let us know, is this something that we can change and make for the better. It really takes a lot of smaller steps, some of which may only help out a small percentage of your group, but each one can be important.
Health care systems tend to be very siloed. Some of our best work has really been to work to try to develop relationships, to break down some of those silos. So we can work together to fix some of these problems and probably is our best achievement has been to develop this through the organization. The AMA team is extraordinary. Each one of them is just so involved, so dedicated. And it's just it's been really one of the great things to get to know them. It's been extraordinarily successful.
Dr. Scott: Thank you, Bayhealth, for your dedication to physicians and the patients we are proud to serve.
Congratulations again to all of our joy in Medicine Recognition Program honorees who understand that when physicians thrive, patients thrive, and who are focused on creating the conditions where joy, purpose and meaning are possible for all physicians. Thank you.
Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed in this podcast are those of the participants and/or do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the AMA.
