Executive Leadership and Physician Well-being

Abstract

These are challenging times for health care executives. The health care field is experiencing unprecedented changes that threaten the survival of many health care organizations. To successfully navigate these challenges, health care executives need committed and productive physicians working in collaboration with organization leaders. Unfortunately, national studies suggest that at least 50% of US physicians are experiencing professional burnout, indicating that most executives face this challenge with a disillusioned physician workforce. Burnout is a syndrome characterized by exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced effectiveness. Physician burnout has been shown to influence quality of care, patient safety, physician turnover, and patient satisfaction. Although burnout is a system issue, most institutions operate under the erroneous framework that burnout and professional satisfaction are solely the responsibility of the individual physician. Engagement is the positive antithesis of burnout and is characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption in work. There is a strong business case for organizations to invest in efforts to reduce physician burnout and promote engagement. Herein, we summarize 9 organizational strategies to promote physician engagement and describe how we have operationalized some of these approaches at Mayo Clinic. Our experience demonstrates that deliberate, sustained, and comprehensive efforts by the organization to reduce burnout and promote engagement can make a difference. Many effective interventions are relatively inexpensive, and small investments can have a large impact. Leadership and sustained attention from the highest level of the organization are the keys to making progress.

Cross‐sectional survey of workplace stressors associated with physician burnout measured by the Mini‐Z and the Maslach Burnout Inventory

“…In pursuit of value-alignment, some organizations incorporate physician's perspectives though physicianadministrator dyad leadership structures, collaborative distributive leadership styles, and leadership traits to engage and empower, seek input, get buy-in, recognize, and inspire; these are reported to improve professional satisfaction and reduce burnout. (Eisenberg & Williams, 1981;Hemker & Solomon, 2016;Oostra, 2016;Shanafelt, Gorringe, et al, 2015;Shanafelt & Noseworthy, 2017;Swensen, Kabcenell, & Shanafelt, 2016).…”

“…Burned out physicians may withdraw from work physically or emotionally, which has adverse effects on providing affordable access to safe high-quality health care. As such, physician burnout is described as a public health crisis (Noseworthy et al, 2017) and physician wellbeing is described as the missing quality indicator of health system performance (Bodenheimer & Sinsky, 2014;Olson, 2017;Wallace, Lemaire, & Ghali, 2009).…”

In Their Own Words: An Analysis of the Experiences of Medical Interns Participating in a Prospective Cohort Study of Depression

“…The Mayo Clinic Physician Wellbeing Program, for example, has demonstrated that modifications to the workplace, especially around time, can increase physician wellbeing. 27 However, such structural interventions may not be a panacea. Studies of the 2011 duty hour reforms have demonstrated that working less may not decrease depressive symptoms, increase the number of hours slept, or improve wellbeing.…”

Managing oneself before managing others: a health advocacy core competency

“…They are beyond the scope of this article. Addressing various systemic institutional factors is an important overall strategy . One important matter that can be tackled at the departmental level would be to provide good clinical leadership.…”