Stop Physician Burnout: One step to more of what you really want in your practice.

Desire is an interesting and disempowering emotion. When you really, really, really want things to be different and you wake up the next day -- and it is exactly the same as yesterday -- well that is just disappointing to say the least.

If your practice is not what you dreamed it would be ... that difference between desire and reality can be a major source of stress and burnout. 

And yet there is great power in desire/longing/dreams and vision when you have a clear target and the skills to move in that direction. This is what got you through Medical School and Residency - a clear finish line and a way to get there.

You are out in your own practice now. You have the freedom and responsibility to determine what your practice looks like and how it feels ... for you and your family. It is rare that you will find what you seek on someone else's job description.

You will need to change things up to get what you really want in your practice/career/life. This is how you put stress and burnout to its highest and best use.

Physician Burnout's highest and best use

From within the misery of physician burnout it is difficult to see, but there is a purpose to this suffering. Burnout actually has a highest and best use.

When you use your stress and burnout as fuel for transformation -- when you do a good job of burning out, you will look back on this as an important turning point in your life. A turning point for the better.

One of the key causes of the modern Physician Burnout epidemic is the state of leadership in healthcare

Let's face it, large organizations that employ hundreds of physicians are a new development in the healthcare industry. The consolidation in healthcare continues, forming larger and larger companies, while the on-the-job-quality of life for the workers continues to deteriorate. 

Over and over again leaders emphasize numbers over mission, meaning, and culture of the group. Add COVID into the mix and it really is a perfect storm. 

• Where did this go off the rails?
• Where can we find new attitudes and new skills to build a healthy healthcare workplace.

In this video Simon Sinek will show you lessons he learned from the Navy Seals that can help all leaders in healthcare.

Lessons about TRUST / PERFORMANCE / TOXIC CULTURES / SOFT SKILLS / THE PETER PRINCIPLE and #PhysicianLeadership.

Check it out and PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT.

We believe there will be a short window of wider acceptance for Physician Wellbeing in the wake of COVID-19

I have seen senior leaders marvel at the magnificent response of the physicians and staff to the crisis of the pandemic. A small percentage of them will want to do more to care for the doctors as the overwhelm recedes. This window will close when financial concerns distract these same leaders as "normal" returns to healthcare.

What lessons can we all learn from being sued for malpractice?

So many learnings on so many layers. About lawsuits and lawyers, settlements and verdicts. About human nature and most importantly about yourself and career choice to be a physician.

There is no better teacher of these lessons than Gita Pensa MD

In Physicians On Purpose (POP) Podcast #18...
Let her show you a magnificent 12 year saga of ups and downs, detailing exactly what she learned, inside and out, in the process.

POP Podcast 18:
Dr. Gita Pensa - 12 Year Malpractice Litigation Journey

The magnitude of pandemic trauma to our healthcare workers ensures a long tail of depression, PTSD, drug addiction and suicide extending well into 2022.

Now is the time to build the systems to cope with this delayed impact wave of COVID-19. We are not out of the woods when we reach herd immunity. It is only after the coast is clear that the psychiatric complications manifest in our physicians and staff.

Are recent decreases in COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths just the eye of the pandemic hurricane or can we really see the end of this long, dark tunnel?

We are in a race with the virus' natural ability to mutate. Is this recent lull in the action a sign the end is near or just a brief respite and the worst is yet to come?

The majority of physician burnout or engagement surveys make things worse for your employed physicians.

It is a classic leadership example of good intentions gone horribly wrong.

If you fall into one or more of the six survey fails below, it is possible that your survey will make burnout worse by demonstrating just how clueless the senior leaders are about conditions in the front lines.

In this blog post, let me show you the six most common survey fails - gathered from our experience working with over 175 organizations to date. Unfortunately, many  leadership teams fall into a fail cascade with their efforts qualifying for more than one of the examples below. Before we dive in, know that surveys can be powerful adjuncts to an effective physician wellness program when used correctly. Contact us to learn how. 

After COVID-19 is gone, what do you want your medical practice to look and feel like?

As I type this blog post it is 2/21/2021. For the first time in months, the infection, hospitalization and death rates of the coronavirus are in a free fall. We are vaccinating 1.6M people a day in the USA. Barring a variant wave in the next eight weeks, many of us can see an end to all of this, perhaps even before we wrap up the calendar year.

Now is the time to start planting the seeds of your post-pandemic medical practice. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rebalance and de-stress your practice. There is a potential window of flexibility opening now that will last only a matter of months. How do you bridge the gap between what you have and what you really want?

The key is asking different questions and the time to get started is now.

Will the 2021 revised E & M codes restore some value to the intellectual side of patient management?

That question is open for now.

What does need to happen immediately is a change in your old coding habits. 

When you stop the old cut and paste of physical exam findings and learn how to use Risk and Decision Making properly - a Level IV visit will most likely become your new normal and Level V much simpler to justify. 

Learn Much More in our latest Physicians on Purpose Podcast:

POP Podcast 13:
2021 Evaluation and Management (E&M) Codes with Paul DeChant MD