AMA Update covers a range of health care topics affecting the lives of physicians, residents, medical students and patients. From private practice and health system leaders to scientists and public health officials, hear from the experts in medicine on COVID-19, medical education, advocacy issues, burnout, vaccines and more.
Featured topic and speakers
Are there new EHR data trends? What's the AMA well-being survey? When is the 2025 AMA Joy in Medicine application deadline? Joy in Medicine list 2024
Christine Sinsky, MD, vice president of professional satisfaction at the American Medical Association, joins to discuss the top physician well-being programs from AMA Joy in Medicine™ 2024 recognized groups. Dr. Sinsky shares the latest trends in physician well-being, AMA Joy in Medicine™ guidelines on how to start a physician well-being program and 2025 Joy in Medicine™ application dates. AMA Chief Experience Officer Todd Unger hosts.
- The AMA is your powerful ally, focused on addressing the issues important to you, so you can focus on what matters most—patients. We will meet this challenge together. Join us.
- Watch the American Medical Association Joy in Medicine 2024 Recognition Program honorees.
- AMA's Joy in Medicine™ Health System Recognition Program.
- Find currently recognized organizations and more Joy in Medicine winners 2024.
- Learn more about the AMA Health System Program.
- Learn more about our AMA advocacy priorities, including:
- Reforming Medicare payment
- Fighting scope creep
- Fixing prior authorization
- Reducing physician burnout
- Making technology work for physicians
Speaker
- Christine Sinsky, MD, vice president of professional satisfaction, AMA
Transcript
Unger: Hello and welcome to the AMA Update video and podcast. Well, we just unveiled the organizations that were recognized by the AMA Joy in Medicine Health System Recognition Program for 2024. And today, we'll share highlights from that announcement and talk about the trends that we saw in the organizations that we recognized.
Our guest today is Dr. Christine Sinsky, vice president of professional satisfaction at the AMA, calling in from Madison, Wisconsin. I'm Todd Unger, AMA's chief experience officer in Chicago. Dr. Sinsky, thanks so much for joining us today.
Dr. Sinsky: Thanks, Todd. It's great to be with you again.
Unger: First off, congratulations to all the organizations that were recognized. Dr. Sinsky, why don't we just start out by having you give us a little bit of background about this year's honorees?
Dr. Sinsky: Sure. Happy to. This is actually the fourth year of our full programming and the Joy in Medicine recognition program. And this year, we're recognizing 62 organizations. And those 62 organizations join another 70 organizations who we recognized last year, recognition lasts for two years. So in total, we have around 130 organizations from 30 different states.
Notably, in this group, we have our first time ever federally qualified health system that's being recognized at the highest level at the gold level, and that's El Rio in Arizona. And then lastly, we are recognizing 12 organizations at the silver level. We have bronze, silver and gold levels for recognition. And 11 of those 12 are returning to the program, having in previous years been recognized at the bronze level.
And I like to highlight that because that shows this progression that these organizations are using the recognition program as a strategic roadmap and may start out meeting the bronze criteria that over several years may work themselves up to silver and eventually up to gold.
Unger: It's not only a progression, but it also shows a real level of commitment to that. So it is very encouraging. It's another strong year for the Joy in Medicine Program. Dr. Sinsky, have we seen any interesting trends among the organizations that were recognized this year?
Dr. Sinsky: Yes. So I've been doing the reviews since the beginning of our program. And one thing that stuck out to me is that organizations are becoming more sophisticated in how they use data, particularly EHR event log data, to guide their understanding of what's happening in the care environment and therefore, to be able to improve that care environment for patients and physicians.
One study that we recently published showed that family physicians and general internists spend an hour and a half on order entry for every eight hours of appointment time. And as organizations start to track this kind of measure as one of the criteria for the Joy in Medicine Recognition program, they can see where physician time is being allocated and then make decisions about more strategic ways to allocate that time.
Another thing that we've seen is that leadership is really important. And it's not just at the C-suite level, it's at the unit level. And so we're finding more organizations are surveying their physicians about the physician's immediate supervisor, and then using that feedback to customize the training of that unit leader so that they can be more effective leaders for the people they lead. And we know that that contributes to the well-being of the workforce.
Unger: I think there was other one that caught my attention when we were talking before, and that's the role of partnerships across the organization, which may be a new thing. Do you want to talk a little bit more about that?
Dr. Sinsky: Yeah. So it turns out that when we can create connections between leaders of different areas, for example, when the technology leaders partner with the chief medical officers, and then at every level that there is a physician lead and a technology lead, that that's a way that we can make sure that the technology helps to support the people doing the work and feeling like the technology is working for the physicians and their teams, rather than having all the clinical staff feeling like they're working for the technology.
Unger: That's so interesting. Of course, many of these problems that are sources of burnout probably do cut across many different units at any health care organization. So that kind of teamwork really important. Dr. Sinsky, these are all really encouraging trends. For health systems that might be in the earlier stages of their well-being work or just getting started, what advice do you have for them?
Dr. Sinsky: Yeah. Well, a couple of things. First of all, if you're just getting started, good for you because you have to start someplace. And the first piece of advice I have is consider this the long game and make the commitment to being in well-being for the long game. It takes time and commitment. And it often takes organizations several years to even get to the point of applying for bronze. And that's great.
And you can use that to your advantage as you work with your colleagues and you work with your leaders to know that this is an investment that does take time. And the other thing I'd like to share with new—with organizations that are new to this process is a good place to start is with measurement, with assessing the organization and measuring the satisfaction and burnout rates among your physicians, but also measuring other aspects of care—how much time is spent on the electronic health record measures of leadership, measures of culture, measures of teamwork. Those help to start to paint the picture of what's happening at the point of care and provide the opportunity then to optimize those workflows.
Unger: Dr. Sinsky, if someone wanted to find out more about the assessment and the measurement part of this, especially for newcomers to this, where would they start?
Dr. Sinsky: Sure. Well, there are many measurement tools that are available, and we don't mandate which tool an organization uses. For example, for burnout, one can use one of many tools. But we do offer a no-cost assessment, which we call the AMA Organizational Biopsy that allows organizations to go further in and measure not only physician burnout and professional fulfillment, but also physicians career intentions, their intentions to reduce their clinical effort or their intentions to leave the organization.
And then it measures of leadership, culture, meaning and work and measures teamwork, practice, efficiency and then some measures of institutional support for individual self care. So that's been a wonderful mission-driven resource that we offer to the medical community at no cost.
Unger: And what an excellent opportunity there, because that kind of framework to be able to assess and improve such an important part of the Joy in Medicine Program. Why is it that this kind of framework is so important at organizations to get on that journey of improving physician well-being?
Dr. Sinsky: I believe, Todd, that many organizational leaders very quickly realized that physician burnout and all health professional burnout and well-being are important to their achieving their other strategic priorities, quality of the patient experience, quality of care, safety, their financial stability, their ability to recruit and retain physicians. And yet reasonably, they just don't know where to begin. It can almost seem overwhelming.
And the framework of Joy in Medicine program gives organizations a path forward and helps them set priorities. As I mentioned earlier, we have three levels of achievement—bronze, silver and gold. And we have six different categories of criteria with specific criteria at each of those levels. And some of those six areas include commitment and leadership and practice efficiency and support. And so it gives an organization a roadmap, a way to move forward in an organized and evidence-based manner.
Unger: Now with more and more health systems engaging with the Joy in Medicine program, there's a new opportunity, and that's to be able to learn from peers that are also recognized as part of the program. For a health system that wants to see and learn more about the work of another organization, where would they go?
Dr. Sinsky: Well, there are a couple of places. One is that there was a recognition ceremony and that profiled three of the organizations. And that's available to watch that recording online. Secondly, there is an upcoming magazine that the AMA is publishing that will highlight case studies from 17 of our recognized organizations. So you can see what others have done. You can get inspiration from their approach to improving well-being and some of the specific particulars that they have implemented in their organization.
And then we give a lot of support to both newcomers to the program and those who are moving up a level through a series of webinars and other calls that are part of our program that we make available to the medical community.
Unger: And we'll include a link to those resources that Dr. Sinsky mentioned in the description of this episode. Dr. Sinsky, it's hard to believe, but the application cycle for the 2025 Joy in Medicine Program is going to be starting soon. What do health systems need to know about that?
Dr. Sinsky: So the application cycle starts January 10 and closes March 7. But organizations can, at this moment, already indicate their interest in applying by filling out an intent to apply form. And that's on our AMA website. In addition, our team will host an informational webinar on January 14, as well as hosting many office hours throughout the fall to help answer questions that organizations may have as they prepare their applications.
Unger: Excellent. Dr. Sinsky, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you and the team for all of the hard work that goes into putting the Joy in Medicine Program together. And again, congratulations to all of the health systems that were recognized as part of the program this year and last year.
We'll include more information and links about the information that you mentioned in the description of the episode. So check that out. And if you're a health system leader who's interested in applying for recognition in the 2025 Joy in Medicine Program, we encourage you to visit ama-assn.org/joyinmedicine to learn more and get started.
That wraps up today's episode and we'll be back soon with another AMA Update. Be sure to subscribe for new episodes and find all our videos and podcasts at ama-assn.org/podcasts. Thanks for joining us today. Please take care.
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.
Subscribe to AMA Update
Get videos with expert opinions from the AMA on the most important health care topics affecting physicians, residents, medical students and patients—delivered to your inbox.
