When the battle against the virus is raging in the ER and the ICU ...

It's all hands on deck
All power to the shields
Throw everything you've got to the front lines

And rightfully so.

That is not enough!

Staffing and supporting the front line care teams is job #1 everywhere and
we can't forget the members of those care teams who are not here today. 

I am not talking about the workers who are simply off shift right now. Let me show you this physician leadership blind spot.

Physician Leadership - Trust vs. Performance on your Teams

Looking to build a high performing team?
Will it have physicians on it?
Let me show you a simple way to build a better team and understand the team's performance - good, bad and ugly.

Here is a video by leadership expert Simon Sinek that reveals how a military elite team picks its members - the Navy Seals. I believe the simple two-part lesson in this video is key to understanding physician behavior on teams as well. 

He asked the question:

"How do you choose people that go on Seal Team 6?"

Let me show you a classic bean counter leadership delusion that is already increasing front-line physician burnout here in the USA.

The Sine Wave Delusion happens when a physician leader does not understand patient care and assumes financial losses can be made up easily if we just spin the doctor hamster wheels faster. 

And get ready to run like never before 

If you haven't heard yet, your organization just had its worst three months in history -- yet another COVID-19 driven contribution to physician burnout.

i) If you are a practice owner, this reality has been keeping you up at night for weeks.

ii) If you are an employee physician and you don't already know about the smoking crater that is your organization's financial statement, your leaders are hiding the financials from you in a fine example of #badleadership.

iii) And if your organization somehow managed to avoid a massive loss in the last 90 days - either you are a full risk/capitated provider (Kaiser Permanente) or you got very, very lucky.

For healthcare delivery organizations relying on fee-for-service payment contracts, things have never been this bad.

Their profit margin just went from single digit positive to a giant sucking sound. Even the Mayo Clinic is projecting a 3 BILLION dollar loss in 2020.

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This is Blog Post #335
Complete Blog Library  is Here
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Now we have some potential GOOD NEWS !

Now we are seeing a little flicker of light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel. 

Attention Senior Healthcare Leaders - your personal leadership response to this COVID-19 crisis will lock in the culture of your teams for the next 5 years.

• The tail is long
• The time for leadership is now
• How are you showing up?

When the pandemic forces your people to strap on their PPE for each shift, putting themselves at daily risk in order to serve the sick and dying - they are watching for any signs that someone has their back. 

If we polled them ...
... how do you think your people would rate the quality of your crisis leadership, on a 0 -10 scale?

The Training and Support to become an Effective Physician Wellness Champion

Our 2020 dates are set for both Spring and Fall deliveries of the Quadruple Aim Physician Leadership Retreat. Check your schedule now to see which date works for you.  

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Get Complete Retreat Details Here
Including How to SAVE $500 as an Early Bird
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If you are being called to lead the Physician Wellness movement, this unique training and comprehensive support system are keys to your effectiveness.

What would you say about an industry that reliably burns out half of their most valuable workers ...

• Workers that take over a decade to train
• Are the point of origin for 100% of gross revenue
• And for which there is already a massive shortage that will get much worse in the near future

This same industry clearly understands that physician burnout harms and kills patients and doctors and has a massive negative effect on the organization's bottom line.

What words are most appropriate to describe such insane behavior? [even Lemmings would appear to be more interested in their own survival]

Does the Healthcare Industry Exploit Doctors? 

Dr. Danielle Ofri - author of the book What Doctors Feel - wrote a groundbreaking piece in the New York Times this week entitled: The Business of Health Care Depends on Exploiting Doctors and Nurses

In the article she writes:
"Counting on nurses and doctors to suck it up because you know they won’t walk away from their patients is not just bad strategy. It’s bad medicine." 
We couldn't agree more.

Unfortunately, her article then crashes and burns in an impossible recommendation that half of all US Healthcare Administrators be fired, because:
"If we converted even half of those salary lines to additional nurses and doctors, we might have enough clinical staff members to handle the work."
Duh! AND I think we agree no organization is going to take her up on that change in business model. 

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Stop The Madness
Help Us Lead the Physician Wellness Movement
Quadruple Aim Physician Leadership Retreat
Get Complete Details at This Link
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In this post let me show you

• Why we agree with Dr. Ofri that physician exploitation is built into the industrial practice of medicine
  
  
• Some simple Case Study examples of exploitation from our thousands of hours of physician burnout coaching client files
  
  
• The Triple Competitive Advantage if your Leadership Team STOPS Exploiting the Doctors and begins to Practice the Quadruple Aim Instead

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 ]