Continuing its nationally recognized effort to curb physician and clinician burnout, a joint Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS)—Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association (MHA) task force on the issue is asking each Massachusetts hospital and physician organization to sign a letter demonstrating their facility’s commitment to effectively addressing burnout.
Specifically, the MMS-MHA Joint Task Force on Physician Burnout is asking each facility to select a measure of physician/clinician burnout and measure it over time, and include improving that particular metric of burnout within the facility’s institutional goals.
A facility can choose its own measure from among the many evidence-based ones currently available,
such as those listed here. Alternatively, a facility can construct its own measure. For instance, one physician practice has dramatically reduced the number of “clicks” a physician must make when coordinating a patient’s care with the facility’s electronic health record system. There is broad consensus that a major contributor to physician burnout is dissatisfaction and frustration with EHRs. The 2018 Physician Survey identified EHRs as the single most important “pain point” physicians faced in their practice. For many physicians, the patient encounter is now dominated by the demands of the EHR, undermining the crucial face-to-face interaction that is at the core of quality care.
Other anti-burnout strategies include appointing a chief wellness officer at institutions, and providing clinicians with counseling and mental healthcare without stigma and without unnecessary constraints on a physician’s ability to practice.
The MMS-MHA Joint Task Force on Physician Burnout produced
a landmark report on the issue in 2018 and has collaborated over the past two and a half years with state and national groups, including the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the Harvard Global Health Institute, and the National Academy of Medicine. During the pandemic, the burnout issue among caregivers has only increased and providers have been proactive about finding new and creative ways to support their workers’ wellbeing.