Physician Wellness Comes First - It is the Foundation for Engagement and Performance

Posted by Dike Drummond MD

 

For over 50 years, hundreds of research studies have demonstrated this consistent hierarchy
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Physician Wellness is the Foundation for Physician Engagement and Performance.


The Health, Happiness and Wellbeing of your Physicians and Staff will determine:

Their levels of Engagement and Satisfaction
The ease of Recruitment and the amount of Turnover in the patient care teams
The Quality of their care
The Quantity of care they can deliver
The Safety of that care and the number of Medical Errors
The level of Patient Satisfaction

[ and even the Net Promoter Score if that is what keeps you up at night ]

NOTICE:
PHYSICIAN WELLBEING COMES FIRST 

WELLBEING begets ENGAGEMENT which begets PERFORMANCE
IN THAT ORDER

Tags: stop physician burnout, physician wellbeing

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Two More States Pass Laws Protecting Physician Wellness Programs

Posted by Dike Drummond MD

No doctor should hesitate to participate in a Physician Wellness Program because of the risk of discoverability and judgement down the road.

  • What if the state medical board finds out?
  • What if my specialty society or the insurance companies that are our payors find out?

These should never be questions you worry about before you reach out for support.  With burnout rates of 40%+ and over 400 physician suicides a year in the USA alone, we must do all we can to remove barriers to doctors asking for and receiving support in their time of need.

Legislation to provide immunity to Wellness Program participants is an important piece of this effort.

Unfortunately, here in the USA, we are a nation of states. This immunity from discoverability will have to come via state laws.

Good News ...
there appears to be an immunity support wave building in state legislatures around the country. It is still early and now the count is three!

Tags: physician wellbeing

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Healthcare ROCKS THE VOTE to Push Back on Politics as Usual in the USA

Posted by Dike Drummond MD


August 2020 is Civic Health Month - Healthcare Supporting Voting and Voter Registration in 2020

There is a new movement at the intersection of Medicine and Politics here in 2020.

Tags: physician wellbeing

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Does National Academy Consensus Statement set stage for a Physician Wellness Turning Point?

Posted by Dike Drummond MD

Will recent recommendations of the National Academy of Medicine cause meaningful action to address the burnout epidemic?

What do you think?
 
What are the odds this six pound consensus statement will change your daily experience of seeing patients and dealing with the digital Whirlwind of your work day any time soon?
  • Will we look back 10 years from now and say 2020 is when everything changed?
  • Do calls for a "positive work environment" mean anything when there are no recommendations on HOW to accomplish that feat? 
  • What happens in the C-suite when this call to address physician burnout clashes with the organization's drive to maximize profit and shareholder value? (even non-profits must have a margin!)
Those questions will only be answered in hindsight, years from now.
 
And we believe it is important you see and understand the recommendations being made on your behalf by this impressive gathering of "experts".
 
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Get Your Corporate Physician Wellness Strategy
WellMDWorks 3-Step Process is at This Link
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In this blog post let's do two things:

1) Look at a sampling of specific recommendations and what they could mean to you. I promise to focus only on those few sentences in the 300 pages most likely to effect you directly.

2) Give you a copy of the full recommendations so you can do two things:

    1. Print off two copies and carry them with you at all times.
    2. So when the opportunity arises, you can drop them on your CEO/CMO/CFO's desk and ask that they be adopted in your organization. If your boss can be influenced by consensus statements like this, you want to be ready for their teachable moment

Tags: physician wellness, stop physician burnout, physician wellbeing

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Stop Physician Burnout - the Courage to Take Better Care of Yourself

Posted by Dike Drummond MD

When burnout forces you to reverse the bad habits of our training - normal self-care can seem like an act of courage

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This is Blog Post #288

Complete Blog Library  is Here
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Burnout is your destiny trying to get your attention. It's objective - wake you up and knock you onto a path with more purpose.

Most of the time, it must grind you to a state of complete exhaustion, before you will begin to challenge the habits that got you here. Those survival habits were learned in the crucible of your residency. Learning to take better care of yourself won't come easily.

And if you are lucky, burnout finally gets you to look in the mirror and ask, "Is THIS what I really want in my life and my practice?"

If you recover, better self-care will be a significant piece of your strategy. You realize you don't have to live your life like a resident. There are other options.

  • You will learn how turn off your "the patient comes first" programming when you are not at work
  • You will find new ways to take better care of yourself - to put your mask on first
  • Rest - Nutrition - Vacations/Holidays - even a little pampering here and there - will all play a role. 

Then you run into the next obstacle. 

As soon as you start taking better care of yourself, GUILT will often rear its ugly head.

Tags: stop physician burnout, physician wellbeing

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