Give physicians the right tools, technology, and supportive environment required to thrive daily and feel free to follow their professional and financial interests, then they will be much more willing to put up with the pressure, on-call shifts, and time away from their families. Health system leaders often need to catch up on this second point, which is extremely important.
The healthcare industry has almost entirely corporatized. However, it is also true that most physicians continue to adhere to the moral standards that initially drew them to the profession. And that is what compels many physicians to work in hospitals.
Corporate medicine has extracted nearly all of the system’s “efficiency.” The productivity figures can stretch only so far with restructuring and mergers. However, the professional integrity of medical staff members is one resource that looks endless.
The enterprise as a whole is held together by this ethic. Patients would suffer terribly if doctors and nurses left their workplaces after their paid shifts were over. Nurses and doctors don’t do it because they know the repercussions. Over the past few decades, the pressure put on medical personnel has increased steadily without a corresponding increase in time or resources. Patients will only get the care they need if doctors and hospitals work closely together. In light of these conditions, hospitals must plan improvements to attract and keep the best doctors, ultimately benefiting patients. Here are four ways hospitals can stop working against physicians so patients can get the care they need and deserve.
Transfer Non-Physician Duties to Other Hospital Staff
According to an article on AMA Wire, MultiCare Health System (MHS), located in Tacoma, Washington, developed the Provider Wellness Program to identify and solve the main reasons behind its doctors’ and advanced practice providers’ workplace inconveniences.
The health system discovered that at too many organizations, doctors perform many duties that other non-medical staff can quickly complete. For example, this staff can schedule endoscopies and screenings for patients, but often physicians have to do it.
Reduce physician burnout by letting team members manage work that accumulates in the in-basket of the online medical records systems, such as lab results, patient messages, and queries and requests from care homes or referring providers.
Ensure Better Work/Life Balance for Physicians
Providing a better work/life balance is becoming more critical for hospitals, as 92 percent of young doctors say it is a top priority. Doctors are driven away by burnout and discontent; those who remain are less likely to offer patients high-quality care.
Most doctors and nurses find it impossible to leave their work unfinished because doing so could endanger their patients. I will abstain from charging the system with creating a deliberate business plan to exploit medical professionals for free labor. Instead, administrative creep is to blame.
The medical staff members, especially physicians, are burdened with one additional assignment after another because they can’t and won’t refuse them. People continue receiving prescription drugs, having surgeries, and visiting doctors’ offices. From an administrative standpoint, everything is running smoothly.
All is not fine, though. Doctors are experiencing unprecedented levels of burnout, which is much worse than the general population and is steadily rising. The World Health Organization has acknowledged the detrimental effects of burnout from prolonged professional stress.
More doctors and nurses than nearly any other occupation commit suicide each year. Nurse burnout is also rising and is highest among those who provide direct patient care. Increased burnout is also linked to increased instances of medical error and decreased patient safety. This situation can continue, neither for medical personnel nor the patients that depend on them.
The people in charge must consider the effects of their decisions. It’s more than just a lousy tactic to rely on nurses and doctors to put up with it because you know they won’t abandon their patients. It’s medical malpractice. Doctors need support to continue providing the care patients need and deserve.
One of the top priorities for doctors is scheduling flexibility, allowing doctors to share their workload or work part-time. Consider rotating on-call duties to give doctors more time to enjoy their free time without any disturbance. It can be an excellent way to lower the burden on physicians to help them avoid burnout and achieve work-life balance.
Strive for Alignment between Physicians and Health Systems
According to research published by the Harvard Business Review, one of the core problems plaguing U.S. health care is the need for more alignment between doctors and health systems. The conflict between enhancing clinical quality and reducing costs, including coordinating physician compensation with value-based payment systems, is one of the major causes.
The burden of logistical and documentation work, such as maintaining electronic health records, on doctors who would instead devote that time to patients is another problem causing misalignment. These problems will impede efforts to provide high-quality, reasonably priced healthcare.
Hospital management must take action because the quality of care is at risk. Disgruntled patients, poorly coordinated care, unequal access to care, and rising expenses are issues that have troubled the healthcare system but have worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic. Health systems faced their distinct epidemic as the country battled the crisis, which saw a steep rise in physician discontent and burnout.
Health systems’ effectiveness and resilience depend on having coordinated, cooperative partnerships with physicians. These relationships require time to develop with honesty, transparency, and trust.
New care delivery models appear. Improvements are made in production, quality, and efficiency, all of which improve the financial performance of the hospital/healthcare facility.
Alignment, however, is relatively easy to achieve. It is because alignment happens at physicians’ discretion, and the onus is on hospitals/healthcare organizations to convince them to make that choice.
Getting physicians on board involves a person-to-person strategy that begins with establishing shared organizational values and a purpose for the health system, with physician input. To achieve alignment, leaders must consistently remove friction points along the path. It requires will, commitment, grit, tactics, supporting resources, and iteration.
Define the Alignment’s Conditions
As a result of the fragmentation of American health care, patients typically receive poorly coordinated and uncentered care. Physicians are crucial in determining the costs and outcomes of the healthcare system because they are the ones who write prescriptions for treatments.
Physicians would have to take the lead in implementing these changes and ensure they were founded on shared organizational values if hospitals were to improve healthcare’s efficacy, safety, and cost.
By identifying and systematically implementing “guiding principles of professionalism,” doctors, CEOs, and board members can lay the groundwork for this. The values embodied by these pillars, which include practicing medicine responsibly and with compassion, embracing evidence, and educating oneself and others in the interest of patients, represent the qualities of physicians and, most importantly, principles.
Choose Exemplary Medical Professionals to Drive the Cultural Change
Organizations should encourage clinicians to identify colleagues who have embodied the abovementioned pillars through their leadership and practice. These physicians should subsequently be honored at a formal event. The approach grounds the principles in real people rather than just words. It serves to demonstrate the organization’s overall dedication to the pillars.
Also, the pillars must be in physician work contracts, and performance reviews of physicians ought to focus on execution.
Healthcare organizations must intentionally take measures to develop the best physician team players having these qualities with each recruitment and performance evaluation. Many health systems significantly undervalue the importance of these processes, and they have had to pay the price.
Connect With Physicians as Unique People with Unique Needs
Health systems must acknowledge physicians as unique people with their perspectives and motivations before alignment can begin. Doctors can interact with health systems in groups and teams, but they should be able to do it individually if they decide to align.
Holding staff meetings to convey changes and new guidelines is one of the traditional methods for achieving alignment. Still, most doctors don’t just line up to follow orders and read memos because they are accustomed to exercising autonomy and making decisions for others in the field.
It means that organizations must put up the effort to learn what is essential to and motivates individual physicians, bringing their perspectives into the discussion. Also, health system leaders must work with physicians to find solutions rather than alone.
Physicians must be involved in all clinical, administrative, or strategic decisions. Proper alignment entails doctors being free to reject decisions, not in their patient’s best interests.
While all of this is evident to doctors, for many health systems, it is a revelation. Physicians’ abilities and inventiveness happen when the environment strengthens rather than diminishes what they do.
Give physicians the right tools, technology, and supportive environment required to thrive daily and feel free to follow their professional and financial interests; then they will be much more willing to put up with the pressure, on-call shifts, and time away from their families. Health system leaders often need to catch up on this second point, which is extremely important.
What little free time doctors have remaining in their schedules is wholly consumed by imposed productivity demands and electronic health record documentation requirements. However, engaging physicians’ enthusiasm by allowing them to investigate, discover, and take action on their priorities is crucial for their well-being and a strategy to avoid burnout.
According to experts, maintaining energetic alignment requires just 10 to 15 percent of a physician’s time to be set aside for activities like research or learning new skills.
Let the Physicians Take Charge
Leaders of health systems usually are unaware that physicians practice medicine not only to improve patients’ lives directly but also to have a more significant impact by influencing the course of the healthcare organization where they work.
One study focused on three critical medical specialties—cancer, digestive diseases, and cardiovascular care—examined the CEOs of the top hundred hospitals in the USNWR. The research focused on whether hospitals perform better when run by qualified medical doctors or non-medical professional managers. According to the report, physician-controlled hospitals have quality ratings around 25 percent higher than those run by managers.
It’s a skill that goes against what most physicians learn in college and residency, where they learn to be independent and make their own decisions.
Additionally, since most doctors have received little to no training in program deployment, finance, and operations, how ideas execute at scale can be problematic. Hence, those in charge of the healthcare system must teach doctors how to implement change and then assist them while they do so.
Final Word
Physicians must understand how their actions directly advance the larger objectives of the healthcare system. Doctors need to be aware of what to expect from colleagues, organizational leadership, and patients and what they must do to live up to the expectations of these people. The ultimate result will be a healthcare system that assists doctors in providing better patient care.
