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
What is Joy in Medicine™? Why are there mental health questions on physician licensure? What is the goal of the AMA Joy in Medicine™ Recognition Program?
Kevin Hopkins, MD, physician director of health system engagement at the American Medical Association, explains the ins and outs of the AMA Joy in Medicine™ Health System Recognition Program. Dr. Hopkins shares examples from past AMA Joy in Medicine™ honorees, tips for health system leaders, and recent changes for the 2025 application cycle, including updates on medical credentialing language and teamwork assessment. 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.
- Looking for the AMA Joy in Medicine™ application? Submit an Intent to Apply form for the 2025 Joy in Medicine Program.
- Check out AMA's Joy in Medicine™ Health System Recognition Program.
- More about AMA Joy in Medicine™.
- 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
- Kevin Hopkins, MD, physician director of health system engagement, American Medical Association
Transcript
Dr. Hopkins: Well, recognition in the Joy in Medicine™ program shows that an organization has prioritized and demonstrated commitment to the well-being of their physician workforce by action, not just words.
Unger: Hello and welcome to the AMA Update video and podcast. The 2025 application cycle is officially open for the AMA Joy in Medicine™ Health System Recognition Program. And joining us to discuss what organizations need to know about the program this year is AMA's Dr. Kevin Hopkins, who's physician director of health system engagement at the AMA. And he's in Olmsted Township, Ohio today. I'm Todd Unger, AMA's chief experience officer, in Chicago. Dr. Hopkins, it's a pleasure to have you back.
Dr. Hopkins: Well, thanks, Todd. I always enjoy having the opportunity to join you for a conversation.
Unger: Well, when we talked the last time, you told us about how you practice team-based care at Cleveland Clinic. And since then, you've also started this new position at the AMA. So, congratulations there. Why don't we just start by having you tell us a little bit about what you're doing in the new role?
Dr. Hopkins: All right, thank you, Todd. So, I have really been blessed to work with the AMA Professional Satisfaction and Practice Sustainability Group as a senior physician advisor for the past five and a half years. As of mid-November, I've begun this new position as physician director of health system engagement, which includes working with health systems and assessing their organizational well-being with the AMA Organizational Biopsy survey tool and services, speaking engagements, and resource development, such as STEPS Forward® toolkits, playbooks and podcasts, and also helping to reduce regulatory burden on physicians and our teams with the AMA's Debunking Regulatory Myths Series.
Unger: Well, we're really excited to have you on board. These assessments that the team here at the AMA have been doing with many partners and many entities across the country have become very important, as has the AMA's Joy in Medicine™ Recognition Program. For people who might be less familiar with the program, can you give us a little bit of an overview of what it is?
Dr. Hopkins: Sure. The Joy in Medicine™ Health System Recognition Program is the primary means through which the AMA identifies and recognizes health care organizations that are committed to physician well-being. Organizations must meet evidence-informed program criteria in order to be recognized. These criteria were intentionally developed and are continually refined to provide health system leaders with a framework of best practices to support and advance the well-being of their physician workforce, to help create and sustain the conditions where joy, purpose, and meaning in our work are possible. And ultimately, we hope that health systems will use the Joy in Medicine™ program as a roadmap to organizational well-being, both now and in the future.
Unger: Well, it turns out that recognition is just such an important part of this particular program. Talk to us a little bit about why that's so important.
Dr. Hopkins: Well, recognition in the Joy in Medicine™ program shows that an organization has prioritized and demonstrated commitment to the well-being of their physician workforce by action, not just words, investing in programs, policies, and resources that support the physician work environment. Joy in Medicine is an application and attestation program, where health systems submit an application to our AMA team, providing supporting documentation attesting to their work meeting the criteria. Organizations with successful applications are recognized for two years at one of three levels, with progressively stringent criteria, beginning with Bronze and advancing to Silver and ultimately Gold.
And recognized organizations are announced in the fall with a national press release, acknowledgment on the AMA's website and other public celebrations. And because recognition honors a health system's commitment to physician well-being, it can also be a useful strategy to strengthen retention and recruitment.
Unger: We're seeing in our research some results that suggest that that kind of recognition is very meaningful for retention and for new physicians joining a health system, so really, really important. The 2025 application cycle for the program recently opened. Dr. Hopkins, tell us a little bit about some of the changes that applicants will see this year.
Dr. Hopkins: Yes, Todd. So, our application window opened on January 10. And submissions will be accepted through March 7 of 2025. This year's program does have a couple of small changes that applicants should be aware of. One of these I'll highlight is asking organizations to review and update their credentialing applications and peer reference forms to remove any stigmatizing language around past history of mental health and substance use disorders.
Unger: Now, that's a subject that we have talked about before on the program. But for listeners out there, why is that so important?
Dr. Hopkins: The main purpose is, we want to remove any barriers and obstacles to physicians obtaining mental health services when and where they need them. In the past, some physicians have been hesitant about pursuing getting help for their mental health challenges or substance abuse issues out of concerns that it will negatively affect future applications for credentialing and potential licensure.
Unger: Now, as folks will find out—found out as they go through this process, you're offering several different options at different levels for how to demonstrate that. Why these different options?
Dr. Hopkins: Well, we recognize, and we've learned from health systems over the years, that making significant changes to credentialing language can take significant time and effort and also involves a lot of stakeholders. We want organizations that haven't yet been successful in removing this type of language from their credentialing process to share with us the barriers in doing so to help us learn and provide further supportive resources in the future.
Unger: Well, that's one big change for 2025. And another has also been an update at the Bronze level related to teamwork, which is kind of your area of specialty. What's the change and why?
Dr. Hopkins: Right, thanks. Well, we want to be able to continue to emphasize the importance of teamwork in delivering high quality patient care. Organizations have always had the option to assess and report on effective teamwork within their health system and practices. But for 2025, they'll also have the option to provide actual staffing data instead. This allows organizations that haven't yet been able to quantifiably measure teamwork to still meet this criterion.
We ask that health systems provide us with data about how their teams are structured, how team continuity is supported and how work that's delegated and shared across the care team is impacting their work environment.
Unger: The Joy in Medicine™ Health System Recognition Program becoming so important as an indicator of how much that system cares about the physicians. It's so important to enter this year. For those that are interested in applying this year, what should they do next?
Dr. Hopkins: Well, the first step, Todd, is to submit an Intent to Apply form on the AMA's website as soon as possible. And this will give health system leaders access to the full application. Then I'd recommend you take advantage of virtual drop-in hours with our team to ask questions about the program specific to your application. We have several of these drop-in hours scheduled for February that folks can join.
And then, keep in mind the March 7 deadline for applications. This is a hard deadline. So, health system leaders need to make sure that they get their applications submitted before March 7.
Unger: And again, you can find the Intent to Apply form, details about the drop-in hours, and more on the AMA's website at ama-assn.org/joyinmedicine. We'll also include a link to this site in our episode description. Dr. Hopkins, thank you so much for joining us today, and for everything that you and the team do to support the Joy in Medicine™ program.
If you're a health system leader and you want to join the 130 organizations that have been recognized by the AMA for their well-being efforts, now is the time. Visit ama-assn.org/joyinmedicine to learn more and to submit your Intent to Apply form for 2025.
That wraps up today's episode. 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. Please take care.
Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed in this video 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.
