Chief Wellness Officer - CWO - does your organization need one?

It is all the rage in leadership circles these days. The mucky mucks are all in agreement. If your organization is serious about preventing burnout, the very first thing you need to do is appoint a Chief Wellness Officer - and watch the angry, dark clouds of burnout lift - revealing the rainbows and unicorns of a happy, healthy physician workforce.

This is Magical Thinking of the highest order

Let's drink the CWO KoolAide for just a moment ... to recognize it is just another version of checking a box.

This C-Suite executive will be your savior, your cavalry cresting the ridge, your knight in shining armor, your hero among the bean counters. At the very least, they should be able to stop the rest of the C-suite from hammering the doctors into little tiny pieces.

Would your people or your organization actually benefit from installing a Chief Wellness officer - CWO

The answer of course is "IT DEPENDS"
[ And for 99% of healthcare organizations a CWO is a distraction from building a wellness program in the first place ]

The Battle for the Quadruple Aim - It's 3 on 1 and the Outcome Is Unclear

The Quadruple Aim is a simple, common sense concept that goes like this:

Quality patient care is based on the health and wellbeing of the human beings providing that care ... the doctors and staff. 

I know ... you are probably saying "Duh" right now. It seems like such an obvious statement of fact ... right? And it is such an obvious antidote to physician burnout.

I must admit I  had a naive assumption that this concept would take off like a rocket after the first article in Annals of Family Medicine in 2015. And it has not. 

The Quadruple Aim is actually a radical notion in the healthcare industry for three distinct reasons I will show you below.

The battle lines are drawn and the forces are in raging conflict in C-suites and Board Rooms across the globe.

Unfortunately the outcome is in doubt at this point in time.

Physician Wellness - What is the Level of Expertise in Your Organization?

In this post let me show you two important new developments in the prevention of physician burnout.

1) The definition of Five Levels of Expertise in Physician Well-being as proposed by Tait Shanafelt et al in an important new study.

2) A new way for your organization to leap frog to LEVEL FIVE in a single step.

Take a look at the table below and LEAVE A COMMENT telling us the level of your organization's expertise in preventing physician burnout.

A Quadruple Aim update for the Hippocratic Oath

The Declaration of Geneva is the modern successor to the ancient Hippocratic Oath. It was first adopted by the World Medical Association (WMA) at its second General Assembly in 1948.

In the subsequent 70 years there have been only minimal amendments until just two weeks ago - October 14th, 2017 at the WMA General Assembly in Chicago.

For the first time the pledge adds a requirement for doctors to attend to their own health, well-being and abilities in order to provide the best care to our patients.

This language was added:

I WILL ATTEND TO my own health, well-being, and abilities in order to provide care of the highest standard.

This new wording is meant to acknowledge the impact of physician burnout on patient care and be a tangential mention of the Quadruple Aim. But just hold on a second ...

Is this also a form of blaming the victim?=

Quadruple Aim Core Blog Post Library

The Quadruple Aim states: 

The ability of an organization to offer high quality patient care and patient satisfaction is rooted in the health and wellbeing of the providers of that care
-- the physicians, other providers and all the staff. 

YOUR PEOPLE MATTER TOO. 

Simple, yes? Yet, this is somehow a radical concept in the industry that purports to provide "Health Care". 

It is up to us as physician leaders to harness the simple power of the Quadruple Aim and build a more humane healthcare workplace.

Everyone in the system must be able to honor their calling to serve -- without sacrificing their quality of life and their family relationships in the process.

Here are our key blog posts on the Quadruple Aim.