Well, since it's been published in the New York Times, it must be true. Turns out, healthcare providers are burned out.
In a big article last week, the New York Times reported on dramatic increases in burnout reported among physicians and other healthcare providers, based on a recent article on a large survey of healthcare providers published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. As if we didn't know.
I'm sure there are many out there who are not burned out, who are doing just fine, going about their days and getting everything done with style and grace. But almost everyone that I talk to, and also from what I hear from so many others locally, regionally, and nationally, the level of stress and burnout among physicians is unprecedented, and probably massively underreported.
All the online questionnaires we get about wellness and burnout, asking us to rate how satisfied we are with our jobs and how likely we are to leave our job and move to another institution, another healthcare setting, or another profession seem like blunt instruments unlikely to get to the true source of the problem and its depth. It seems like everybody everywhere is stressed, if not to the point of near-breaking, then maybe, just maybe, headed dangerously that way. We see this manifesting in so many ways -- frustration boiling to the surface, outbursts of anger, withdrawal from interactions with others, seemingly lower levels of compassion and empathy. Of course, this has all been heightened by the pandemic, and the state of the world today, and the political and social environments we are all functioning in.
So what do we think the answers should be? How can we make this healthcare system better; how can we make it a great place for patients to get healthcare and for doctors, nurses, and everyone else on the healthcare team to deliver that healthcare?
When we hear about institutional responses, they are often trying to make little inroads into the things that pile up on top of our shoulders. Does anybody really think that a certificate for a yoga class is going to do the trick? Reminding us that we should get plenty of sleep, get more exercise, and build nurturing and supporting relationships among our colleagues, family, and friends, sounds like a good idea. But then we return to work the next morning and are faced with a barrage of in-basket messages, phone calls, faxes, forms that need to be completed, and so much more that we never trained for, that we shouldn't have to handle, and that has very little to do with actually taking care of patients and delivering healthcare.
The time has come for us to recognize that to make the system one in which we all love working, we need to build one that our patients love coming to and can seamlessly navigate through to get to their best health.
When our patients are frustrated, we are frustrated. When they can't reach us on the phone, we have to spend the first few minutes of our office visit apologizing and trying to do service recovery. When the wait to check in at the front desk is 20 minutes for a 20-minute appointment, we're unlikely to get off to a good start. When we tell them that the wait to see the specialist they need is 3-6 months because of their insurance, we've failed them. When we cannot give them telehealth options because of the Zip code they live in, we've missed out on priceless opportunities to help them. When no one calls them to tell them what their test results are, when patients are unclear about what they need to do next, when we lack the systems to communicate between providers to successfully manage patients through a health issue, we are all destined to fail.
So perhaps the answer isn't discounts on a gym membership or a free smoothie at the hospital cafeteria or even tickets to a Yankees game. Maybe it's admitting that our healthcare system is broken, and if we fix it from the standpoint of the patient, we can almost guarantee that it will be a better place for us all to practice, work, and live in.
We need to demand all of the resources we need to get this job done in the healthcare environment as it exists today, and then move towards a system that no longer requires a lot of these extra things. Referrals, refills, and simple message responses need to be off-loaded from providers. An adequate staff to manage the phones and a fully fleshed out team of people helping us with the day-to-day tasks can go a long way to eliminating the chaos and confusion that prevails and leads to so much burnout. Maybe one day we'll even get smart enough to eliminate referrals altogether, to make refills seamless, and to build in patient education about all of a patient's healthcare issues, so that everybody gets all the information they need to take care of themselves in the best way possible.
It's not going to be easy, it's not going to be cheap, but as it stands we're spending so much more money on a healthcare system that just isn't working, that there's got to be a better way.
I'm sure the accounting folks out there are going to tell me there's no business model that they can foresee this works in, and there's no way they can afford this. What I'm telling you is, there's no way they can't afford it.