Physician engagement is a major healthcare industry buzz word these days – and a universal yearning for healthcare leaders

Now that organizations can get paid more for higher patient satisfaction scores, everyone is trying to solve the “mystery” of physician engagement among their providers.

Let me show you why physician engagement is not some mysterious black art and share some simple steps from a classic business book to create more physician engagement in any organization.

Are Physicians the Canary in the Coal Mine of Medicine?

Back in the day, coal miners always carried a canary with them in a small cage whenever they would go down in the mine. The canary is a very talkative bird, always singing and tweeting in a constant background noise. Canaries have one more characteristic important to a miner.

When there is bad air in the mine, the canary’s sensitive lungs will cause it to drop over dead before the miners notice any shortness of breath. When the bird stops singing … the miners head for the surface … fast. It is a life saving maneuver.

Here in 2013 as we start to implement the provisions of Obamacare and projections of physician shortages as high as 91,500 by 2020 come from respected sources, I believe we have a similar “coal mine” situation in healthcare.

Unfortunately, physicians appear to be the canary in the mine.

Physician Burnout Prevention Video Training #1

Physician Burnout vs. Normal Stress
=> How can you tell the difference between the “normal stress” of being a doctor and when you are experiencing Physician Burnout?

Work Life Balance Planning Formula 1 + 1 = 53

One of the biggest stressors for my physician clients is finding some work life balance in your busy week. We are always taught that our patient’s needs come first and we are never shown the “Off” switch on our doctor programming … so it is very easy for our career to become the #800 gorilla that takes up our whole lives.

AND when you are ready to create some work life balance … it has to be quick, simple and easy to do so … otherwise there just isn’t enough time and energy to get the job done.

The biggest reason doctors don’t have work life balance is we don’t have a habit of planning for it.

• It takes a plan to make time for the simple things in our lives that make it sweeter.
• It takes a plan to make time for the big “Bucket List” items that make our memories.
• And planning and scheduling triples the odds you will actually take these work life balancing steps.

Here is a simple, quick and powerful work life balance planning process you can start today

Physician Burnout Podcast Audio – The 4 Causes of Physician Burnout and how to Slay the EMR Devil

Physician Leadership POWER UP for your BID Team Huddle

- De-stress your day
- Get your work done more easily
… and get your Team to take on more of the work load happily …
with this POWER TRAINING for your BID Team Huddle

Work Life Balance and the Schedule HACK Shortcut

Here is a simple, powerful shortcut a client and I came up with this week for quickly helping anyone create more work life balance

Physician Wellness: 2 ways to tell if your group cares

The concept of physician wellness is meant to be an antidote to the physician burnout epidemic. Here are two ways to tell if your group cares.

With multiple surveys showing physician burnout at epidemic levels in all specialties (an average of one in three doctors are burned out on any given office day, some surveys show burnout rates as high as 87%) – many organizations are wondering how to support physician wellness in a meaningful way.

The pervasive negative effects of physician burnout on the quality of care your group provides should make physician wellness a top priority.

oncierge Medicine in Primary Care will be driven by the coming doctor shortage

I believe the projected doctor shortage caused by the Affordable Care Act will drive primary care into two opposite tracks