Recent research from the American Medical Association (AMA) reveals a continued, alarming trend: Physicians and health care providers are burned out, and the cost is tremendous. According to research from the American Academy of Family Physicians, more than 50% of family physicians report markers of poor well-being, and burnout and around 19% of Americans live in areas lacking primary care providers.
- A collaboration befitting the physicians’ lives: The United Health Foundation has partnered with the AAFP Foundation to improve physician well-being and reduce burnout. This strategic collaboration would help alleviate the clinical documentation burden that distracts and detracts from patient care and demoralizes highly trained physicians and empowers doctors to get back to doing what they chose to do: practice medicine and care for the patients.
- A Shocking revelation: A study published in January 2020 revealed that more than 40% of physicians were burned out, with some specialties experiencing even higher rates of burnout, and with burnout affecting women more often than men. COVID-19 has since catalyzed the issue, adding tremendous volumes of very sick patients to already heavy workloads, leaving physicians and health care providers suffering from extreme exhaustion, depression, and even posttraumatic stress disorder.
- Need to improve Physician wellness: Investing in physician wellness has become imperative, not just for coping with this pandemic, but for supporting the entire health care system going forward. “The need to improve physician wellness is critical, especially as COVID-19 has presented health care providers with a new set of challenges and additional stressors,” said Dr. Ken Cohen, a practicing internist, and senior medical director at Optum Care, a UnitedHealth Group company, during the Washington Post Live event. “By supporting AAFP and its innovative new program, we are acting on our long-standing commitment to improving physician well-being and primary care.”
- Program for enhancing the condition: This program will train 200 family physicians to lead change for improved clinician well-being in their practices and organizations, including the development of a change management plan for the participant’s organization. Upon completion, AAFP will support physician participants as they create and implement an applied project that creates change at the organizational level.
- Futuristic goal: “Our goal with this program is to foster a movement in family medicine that changes the culture, policies, and systems in health care to better support clinician well-being and improve our understanding of how to lead change in health care organizations to improve clinician wellness,” said Dr. Catherine Florio Pipas, a family physician and co-chair of AAFP’s Leading Physician Well-Being program. “We are grateful to the United Health Foundation for its partnership in this project and for its commitment to improving physician wellness”. Upon completion, AAFP will support physician participants as they create and implement an applied project that creates change at the organizational level.
