title: Executive Leadership and Physician Well-being: Nine Organizational Strategies to Promote Engagement and Reduce Burnout.
abstract: These are challenging times for health care executives. The health care field is experiencing unprecedented changes that threaten the survival of many health care organizations. To successfully navigate these challenges, health care executives need committed and productive physicians working in collaboration with organization leaders. Unfortunately, national studies suggest that at least 50% of US physicians are experiencing professional burnout, indicating that most executives face this challenge with a disillusioned physician workforce. Burnout is a syndrome characterized by exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced effectiveness. Physician burnout has been shown to influence quality of care, patient safety, physician turnover, and patient satisfaction. Although burnout is a system issue, most institutions operate under the erroneous framework that burnout and professional satisfaction are solely the responsibility of the individual physician. Engagement is the positive antithesis of burnout and is characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption in work. There is a strong business case for organizations to invest in efforts to reduce physician burnout and promote engagement. Herein, we summarize 9 organizational strategies to promote physician engagement and describe how we have operationalized some of these approaches at Mayo Clinic. Our experience demonstrates that deliberate, sustained, and comprehensive efforts by the organization to reduce burnout and promote engagement can make a difference. Many effective interventions are relatively inexpensive, and small investments can have a large impact. Leadership and sustained attention from the highest level of the organization are the keys to making progress.
authors.affiliation: Director of the Program on Physician Well-being, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN. Electronic address: shanafelt.tait@mayo.edu.
authors.forename: Tait D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Shanafelt
authors.affiliation: President and Chief Executive Officer, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN.
authors.forename: John H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Noseworthy
mesh_terms: D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006270:Health Facility Administrators / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000523:psychology* / Q000592:standards; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000639:trends*; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D007857:Leadership; D009786:Occupational Health Services / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D015279:Organizational Culture; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D058991:Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards; D010820:Physicians / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000523:psychology*; D000072358:Work-Life Balance / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards