Physician Burnout and When Being Smart Gets In Your Way

In this article let me show you how being smart can completely obstruct your happiness and what to do to get around this thinking person's roadblock to a better life. Head's up ... the more you are surprised by the last sentence, the more I encourage you to read this article.

Let me show you the truth in this statement:
"The most powerful things in life are simple actions ... not complicated thoughts."

Employed Physicians Top Four Gripes

Medscape published an article this week titled, “4 Top Complaints of Employed Doctors” and it was a very interesting read. Turns out the things employed physicians complain about are basically that they are employees!  Go Figure …

Let me lay out these employed physicians gripes for you with a little detail so you will see what I mean. I will finish this article with a solid way to address all of them. These gripes are basically a cry for effective Physician Leadership.

Although the numbers are not exact, these days about half of doctors are employed physicians, either by a hospital, a medical group or a larger healthcare system. That number is rising pretty rapidly as the industry consolidates to grab the bonus pools soon available to groups large enough to qualify as ACO’s.

Physician Burnout Training Video [5 min]

Physician Burnout and How To Break Out of Survival Mode

There is a tipping point when doctors are under stress … it happens silently, slowly and when you pass through this threshold your downward spiral will frequently accelerate.

I am talking about when you drop into Survival Mode.
When you unconsciously begin to focus your energy 100% on simply getting through the day and dragging your exhausted butt home.

Batch Processing, Patient Flow and the science of how to Get Home On Time

Do you find yourself spending too much time on things that have nothing to do with seeing patients – and then getting home later than you would like?

Do you notice that for every 15 minutes you spend with a patient you spend WAY more than that messing around in the EMR and being distracted by things like prescription refills, test results and a hundred other forms of two bit clerical work in your day?

Does your organization expect you to access your EMR from home to complete chart notes in the evenings after you have tucked your kids into bed? ARRRGGGGHHH !   :-(

I wish I had a chance to shadow you in your office, because there are a number small changes you can make right now that will shave hours off of your “non-clinical activities”.

They don’t teach these things in residency … so let me share the top two tools I have found to get you home on time – with your charts done – more often. If you are not doing these two simple tasks every day in the office you are working WAY too hard and getting home at least an hour later than you have to.

Physician Burnout and the risk of CHD

A new research paper published in the journal “Psychosomatic Medicine” in 2012 is showing a solid link between Burnout and the risk of CHD for the first time. This new information proves a connection that has been suspected for decades and adds to the list of ways burnout can actually kill.

… here are my two favorites

Forget Angry Birds and other mobile apps that do a great job of helping you waste time. And set aside for now the apps that help you find information and practice clinical medicine more efficiently.

It was only a matter of time before mobile apps would be developed that can actually help you prevent physician burnout.

Here are my two favorite mobile apps to help you lower stress and create more work life balance

Learn Physician Burnout Pathophysiology and 2 Main Prevention Methods in this brief video

Physician Wellness – Let’s abandon the struggle and just let doctors do what they do best.

In response to the chronic epidemic of physician burnout, there is a lot of talk about Physician Wellness these days. Hospitals and groups are being encouraged to establish a physician wellness committee and do something, anything, for the doctors. These efforts almost always fail because of a blind spot buried in the fabric of our medical education system.

In this article, let me show you

• Why these committees often sputter and die a quick, silent death
• Why the concept of Physician Wellness is always such a frustrating struggle
• Where to focus our energy instead to create the most good for the most doctors