New workgroup in Peaks focuses on physician and APP well-being
Physicians and providers from across Peaks are engaged in a comprehensive effort to foster clinician resilience, self-worth and empowerment with the new Physician & APP Well-being Committee.
Keep reading. This group will develop initiatives that will affect your work experience and the care you provide, even if you feel you don’t need support and never reach out for help.
According to Jennifer Davenport, MD, chief medical officer at St. James Healthcare and physician champion of this initiative, “’Well-being’ isn’t yoga. ‘Well-being’ encompasses every aspect of your work and your work environment, as well as what you value as a clinician and how you feel you’re valued in return.”
The committee is aligning programs across the Intermountain enterprise and developing local programs and initiatives that will address physician and APP well-being. Below are some strategies being pursued to enhance physician and provider well-being at all care sites:
Normalize asking for help and teach clinicians how to identify a colleague in distress and refer them for support. Peer support programs have been actively encouraged within Peaks for several months, but utilization is fairly low. The resource now exists to support all clinicians, and there are regularly scheduled peer support trainings offered every month. Learn more and sign up for July’s session by clicking here.
At some sites, work already has begun on normalizing asking for help and providing support to those who might need it. At Lutheran, Shai Feingold, DO, has been working in a formal role to improve physician resilience for years. He is the physician champion for the hospital’s regular Schwartz Rounds and a member of the Peaks Well-being Committee.
“For too long, the medical culture has been to suppress the struggle, to grin and bear it, but we must do better, for ourselves and everyone with whom we interface – our patients, our colleagues, our families, our community,” said Feingold. “This committee will help us prioritize this effort and give us the resources we need for greater visibility and increased outreach.”
As a result of this work, physicians can request toolkits for difficult conversations and receive recommendations on blogs and other literature that discuss fostering patience, providing support, building community and other tools for strengthening resilience.
Foster community within and among the medical staffs. The committee currently is establishing a framework for each medical staff to put social programs and events, such as Cocktails & Conversations and Annual Medical Staff Meetings & Dinners, into place and embed them into the physician culture.
Provide opportunities for professional development.
Streamline medical practice to make care more efficient and give clinicians more time doing what they are trained (and love) to do – take care of patients. These initiatives will touch every physician at all care sites in Intermountain Peaks.
“We’re partnering with Clinical Informatics and our Digital Tech teams to ensure changes to our EMR are aligned with physician need and feed into a metric that measures physician impact, just as there are metrics for care,” said Davenport.
She cites time to note completion, use of shortcuts and amount of ‘pajama time’ – the time physicians spend charting at home – as metrics that will be captured and evaluated. Physicians from every region also are involved in the development of new pathways created as part of the system’s ongoing clinical integration, such as the new pneumonia pathway that standardizes care Peaks-wide.
Much more will be announced as different initiatives roll out. Physicians who have an interest in this work are encouraged to contact Davenport at Jennifer.daveport@imail.org.