Engaging physicians in quality improvement work can help prevent them from feeling a loss of control in medicine, which is often cited as a contributing factor to burnout, two physicians wrote in a blog post for Health Affairs.
Lisa Rotenstein, MD, a resident at Boston-based Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Amanda Johnson, MD, a primary care physician at New York City-based NYC Health + Hospitals, argue that methods to promote organizational improvement can therefore also alleviate provider burnout.
They outlined three ways hospitals can engage physicians in improvement efforts:
1. Ensure open communication with providers and allow for collaborative decision-making during team huddles.
2. Train physicians in basic improvement methodology to give them the skills to improve their daily work environments.
3. Give physicians time to work on improvement initiatives and measure the associated impact on employees.
"Among the many strategies being tested, giving physicians back control over their environments through provision of improvement skills and opportunities to engage in improvement can not only be uniquely empowering but also enhance our systems of care," Drs. Rotenstein and Johnson concluded.
To view the full blog post, click here.