Winning the battle against physician burnout requires more than just awareness, say leaders at Ochsner Health in New Orleans. It requires broad collaboration and a multifaceted approach.
“Workforce well-being is a team sport,” said Nigel Girgrah, MD, PhD, chief wellness officer and medical director of liver transplantation for Ochsner Medical Center. “The idea that … a team of seven or eight FTEs [full-time equivalent staffers] is going to move the needle by themselves on the occupational well-being of 40,000 employees is fantasy, really, and so collaboration is crucial.”
Dr. Girgrah joined Ochsner’s chief medical information officer, Louis Jeansonne, MD, in an AMA Insight Network webinar to discuss how the health system has used teamwork and multifaceted problem-solving in its well-being program.
Ochsner Health is a member of the AMA Health System Program, which provides enterprise solutions to equip leadership, physicians and care teams with resources to help drive the future of medicine.
Among other benefits, members of the AMA Health System Program have access to the AMA Insight Network’s Quality, Safety and Equity community. This virtual forum provides an opportunity for like-minded leaders from across the country to hear more examples of how leading health systems are finding innovative ways to address health care inequities in their communities.
As the leader in physician well-being, the AMA is reducing physician burnout by removing administrative burdens and providing real-world solutions to help doctors rediscover Joy in Medicine™.
Show what your priorities are
During the AMA Insight Network webinar, Dr. Jeansonne said it’s important not just to have teamwork but also to make it apparent to everyone in the organization.
“It's important for people to see that you're working together, because it shows that it is a priority, for you and for the system,” he said. Even when meeting with IT workers at Ochsner, Dr. Jeansonne said he emphasizes collaboration.
“Their job is not just to keep the computer system running. Their job is to take care of patients by doing this,” Dr. Jeansonne said. “And it really helps get everyone going in the same direction.”
For his part, Dr. Girgrah said he has been encouraged at Ochsner by how improving physician well-being has become a central mission over the past four years. He collaborates with other business units such as pharmacy business, human resources, leadership training and other departments.
Well-being “has been a rallying cry for, not just our executives, but our physician leaders, and our middle management administrative leaders,” Dr. Girgrah said.
The standard of care in physician well-being recognition
Institutions in this article have been honored by the Joy in Medicine™ Health System Recognition Program.
The promise of AI
Perhaps the most tantalizing development on the horizon for reducing physician burnout has been augmented intelligence (AI)—often called artificial intelligence. With ambient listening, the process of note-writing can be streamlined. And generative AI can provide suggested answers for inbox messages and pre-visit summaries to support physicians, nonphysician providers and other health professionals.
Ochsner has found it helpful for support staff to have access to AI to avoid overloading physicians with tasks, Dr. Jeansonne said. The health system uses well-being data to determine which departments, physicians or specialties could most benefit from the help.
“Everybody wants to have the new technology,” Dr. Jeansonne said. “It's a challenge in deciding with finite resources who gets it first.”
But the data offers an unbiased status report.
“People's priorities and their thoughts change,” Dr. Jeansonne said. “If something else is going on in their life, they may not be talking to us about their struggles with EMR as much. That doesn't necessarily mean it's gotten better.
“You need that data to ensure that you really are making improvements and people aren't just suffering in silence and having trouble—that they've given up or stopped talking about it,” he added.
A well-rounded approach to well-being
At Ochsner Health, it’s not just about one type of intervention, though. Dr. Girgrah says it’s crucial to offer more than one type of well-being program.
“The last thing you want to do is to tell your physician colleagues that we're going to create better sleep hygiene and we're going to do some yoga. That sends a sour message,” he said, adding that well-being efforts and mental health programming should represent “a balanced portfolio.”
Ochsner Health’s focus areas include practice efficiency, leadership development, an organizational culture of well-being, resilience and mental health.
“Don't bet the ranch on one initiative,” Dr. Girgrah said. “Try and have a multifaceted approach.”
Dr. Girgrah also suggested “not sticking to something that's not working” and being “willing to sunset initiatives within mental health that either have a poor net promoter score or that people aren't using or really aren't achieving anything.”
Ochsner has also put financial incentives into its executives’ goals for improving well-being.
“People don't like to talk about compensation, but a workforce well-being bundle and a physician engagement bundle features in our executive goal grid,” he said. “That sends a message that our CFO and our COO are as accountable for the workforce well-being as our physician executives are for the financial performance of the departments.”
While there may be a temptation to overshoot with goals, Dr. Girgrah cautions being aware of the reality of what can be accomplished within a particular time period.
“I really am a big fan of aspirational goal setting but stretch goal setting—in the short term—can be deflating,” Dr. Girgrah said.
For that reason, it’s important to determine leaders’ short-term performance metrics, such as increasing the number of physicians taking EHR courses, intermediate metrics such as decreasing pajama time and long-term metrics of reducing physician turnover.
Overall, Drs. Jeansonne and Girgrah agree there is great cause for hope.
“It's a great time to be in our field because there are a lot of these technologies on the horizon that are really going to help people,” Dr. Jeansonne said.
