Addressing Two Major Drivers of Physician Burnout at the Same Time

 
When you ask physicians about the challenges in their work that contribute to burnout, you’ll often get two responses. The first is about the burdens of medical record documentation, a major concern of the American Medical Association (AMA). The adverse effect of the electronic health record (EHR) is born out in numerous research studies, including a recent report based on a survey of 176 physicians which concluded that “There should be a focus on combating physician burnout by reducing the unnecessary administrative burdens of EHRs.” We have written about this problem frequently, highlighting several recent studies that document how medical scribes significantly reduce EHR documentation time and improve productivity and job satisfaction.
 
The second burnout contributor is Maintenance of Certification, or MOC, which all board-certified doctors must undertake in addition to CME. The AMA has also called attention to the stressor. AMA notes that “a substantial burden on physicians is meeting maintenance of certification (MOC) requirements because it is typically handled after work.”
 
Athreon has newly adopted an innovative strategy for tackling both at the same time. We’ve partnered with a leading team of health services research scientists who have pioneered new professional development tools for physicians that can be incorporated into clinical practice routines. Drs. Saul Weiner and Alan Schwartz have published extensively on the challenge of providing care that is not only biomedically state-of-the-art but also attentive to the individual life challenges of patients, a process they refer to as “contextualizing care.” In a recent JAMA Network Open Access publication, they describe a program in the Department of Veterans Affairs in which they invited patients to audio record their visits. The audio data was then anonymized and coded by a team trained to listen and look (within the medical record) for clues that patients are struggling with life issues complicating their care. They then shared the finding with clinicians. This feedback process turned out to be valuable to the over 600 participating doctors, resulting in better care and $25M in cost savings.
 
Athreon has partnered with Drs. Weiner and Schwartz who work at the Institute for Practice and Provider Improvement (I3PI), in addition to their university appointments. Their team provides the same services as reported in the JAMA study and is approved by both the ABIM and ABFM for performance improvement (PI) MOC. Because Athreon’s advanced technology unobtrusively captures patient-doctor visits as part of its virtual scribing and medical transcription services, the MOC data collection process now occurs without interruption or disruption of the patient encounter. We are excited that in addition to offering our physician clients a new opportunity to build skills and reduce costs, we are helping tackle two significant contributors to physician burnout at the same time.
 
For more information and a free consultation, please contact Athreon at 800.935.0973.