Emerging Strategies for Measuring and Managing Provider Burnout – #HITsm Chat Topic

We’re excited to share the topic and questions for this week’s #HITsm chat happening Friday, 4/10 at Noon ET (9 AM PT). This week’s chat will be hosted by Jeffrey Becker (@BeckerJMB) on the topic of “Emerging Strategies for Measuring and Managing Provider Burnout“.

Physician’s experience professional burnout at double the rate of a typical US worker[i]. The prevalence of burnout within the physician community is having persistent, negative impact on care delivery – increasing the cost of care, eroding the quality of care, and undermining the careers of the nation’s care providers. Of note:

Burnout generates $4.6 billion in added cost for healthcare delivery organizations. Physician burnout contributes to high turnover. This, in turn, generates unnecessary added costs as organizations recruit and onboard new talent. Burnout also contributes to revenue loss as key clinical positions remain unfilled due to higher than average turnover. A recent study looking at just these two factors calculates a conservative loss of $4.6 billion per year in recruitment and revenue loss as result of burnout.[ii]

Burnout impacts both doctors and patients. A meta-analysis of published research spanning the past decade found that physician suicide rates are more than double that of the general population and are among the highest of any profession.[iii]. Patients are negatively impacted by physician burnout as well. A recent report published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings finds that physicians with burnout were more than twice as likely to have made a major medical error during the three months prior to its study[iv].

Key industry groups are demanding action. In March 2019, the Massachusetts Medical Society and Harvard School of Public Health declared physician burnout a public health crisis that urgently demands action.

“The issue of burnout is something we take incredibly seriously because physician wellbeing is linked to providing quality care and favorable outcomes for our patients. We need our health care institutions to recognize burnout at the highest level, and to take active steps to survey physicians for burnout and then identify and implement solutions.” –  Crisis in Health Care: A Call to Action on Physician Burnout. Mass Medical Society. March 2019.

Join us for this week’s #HITsm chat where we’ll discuss measuring and managing provider burnout.

Editor’s Note: What’s amazing is that these burnout numbers were before the COVID-19 Pandemic.  While many doctors are distracted by COVID-19, no doubt COVID-19 is exacerbating these problems in many ways.

Topics for this week’s #HITsm Chat:

T1: INVESTING in BURNOUT: How are health systems building the business case for provider experience investments? What key metrics compel executives to say yes to physician burnout reduction initiatives? #HITsm

T2: MEASURING BURNOUT: Which emerging strategies or technologies are healthcare organizations using to measure physician burnout within the organization? Which emerging strategies or technologies are healthcare organizations using to measure physician satisfaction with EHR / Technology workflows? #HITsm

T3: MANAGING BURNOUT: Which strategies or technologies are healthcare organizations using to reduce physician burnout within the organization? Which emerging strategies or technologies are healthcare organizations using to improve physician satisfaction with EHR / Technology workflows? #HITsm

T4: QUANTIFYING VALUE: How should (or are) health systems measure the cost-benefit of physician burnout reduction strategies? For example, how should the value of in person scribes being compared to the value of virtual scribes, etc. What are the right KPIs for burnout reduction programs? #HITsm

T5: SUPPORTING PROVIDERS DURING COVID19: How is technology enabling and protecting front line workers during COVID19? What are healthcare organizations doing to streamline and expedite COVID19 EHR workflows? #HITsm

Bonus: BIG IDEAS: 59 percent of healthcare organizations tell us they have no formal strategy for measuring burnout. Why do you think that is, and what will it take to turn the tide? #HITsm

Upcoming #HITsm Chat Schedule
4/17 – Crisis Connection, Stress Relief, and Fun
Hosted by John Lynn (@techguy)

4/24 – TBD
Hosted by TBD

We look forward to learning from the #HITsm community! As always, let us know if you’d like to host a future #HITsm chat or if you know someone you think we should invite to host.

If you’re searching for the latest #HITsm chat, you can always find the latest #HITsm chat and schedule of chats here.

About the author

John Lynn

John Lynn is the Founder of HealthcareScene.com, a network of leading Healthcare IT resources. The flagship blog, Healthcare IT Today, contains over 13,000 articles with over half of the articles written by John. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 20 million times.

John manages Healthcare IT Central, the leading career Health IT job board. He also organizes the first of its kind conference and community focused on healthcare marketing, Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference, and a healthcare IT conference, EXPO.health, focused on practical healthcare IT innovation. John is an advisor to multiple healthcare IT companies. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can be found on Twitter: @techguy.

   

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