By addressing employee concerns and embracing ambient listening technology, Sanford Health is advancing clinician well-being and promoting healthier work-life balance, according to Heather Spies, MD.
Recently, Dr. Spies was on a walk when family medicine physician Wallace "Skipper" Fritz, MD, stopped her to voice his excitement about leaving work with finished chart work at 5:30 p.m. Before using an ambient listening tool, Dr. Fritz regularly spent one to two hours every work night and four to six hours every Saturday finishing charts.
Now, Dr. Fritz "was just glowing" with a story about being able to help his 16-year-old daughter pick out her first car, according to Dr. Spies, physician director of clinician experience and well-being at the Sioux Falls, S.D.-based health system.
"Those are stories that make a difference. We're seeing just the people are feeling supported and cared for because the organization is finding tools to give them their time back," Dr. Spies told Becker's.
The rural health system began its ambient listening technology pilot in July for 100 physicians in family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics and obstetrics. As the 48-hospital organization waits on its six-month pilot results, early data hints at success. Since 2022, Sanford physicians' job satisfaction has increased by more than 8% and burnout burdens have decreased by 13.8%.
Nationally, 72.1% of physicians reported job satisfaction in 2023 and 48.2% said they were burnt out, according to the AMA. At Sanford, these figures are 82.8% and 36.5%, respectively. Among Sanford advanced practice providers, job satisfaction (83.7% vs. 74.9%) and burnout levels (42.7% vs. 50.5%) are also better than national averages.
For the organization's 2,800 other physicians not part of the pilot, Dr. Spies said these achievements in higher job satisfaction scores and lower burnout rates are due to a culture of constant feedback and action.
For example, clinician surveys revealed a widespread issue with required computer-based training modules taking hours to complete, burdening an already busy workforce.
Eighteen months after the seven-person clinician experience team streamlined the modules, "I literally have not heard a complaint about those since we made that change," Dr. Spies said.
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