Addressing burnout and clinician well-being can have financial benefits for healthcare providers.
Clinician well-being and financial health don’t have to be at odds.
If your leadership feels that improving clinician well-being means putting other institutional problems on the back burner, you might have an opportunity to address two problems at once. Technology that streamlines processes and improves the experience of frontline clinicians can reduce revenue-draining burnout while supporting both fiscal health and financial outcomes.
Prioritize clinician well-being to counter institutional fatigue
Supporting clinician well-being should be the foundation of your plan to address financial concerns.
U.S. Surgeon General Vice Admiral Vivek Murthy, MD, MBA has commented on the association between clinician burnout and decreased patient safety. “Burnout among health workers has harmful consequences for patient care and safety, such as decreased time spent between provider and patient, increased medical errors, and hospital-acquired infections among patients. Burnout results in patients getting less time with health workers, delays in care and diagnosis, lower quality of care, medical errors, and increased disparities.”
Taking action on clinician well-being and organizational financial health
The Triple Aim in healthcare was launched to optimize health system performance via a focus on improving population health through secondary goals of enhancing the patient experience and reducing the per capita cost of care. With the recognition that physician burnout correlates with reduced treatment plan adherence and negative clinical outcomes, a fourth element was added—improving the work life of healthcare providers, creating the Quadruple Aim.