By Sheryl Bushman, DO, FACOOG(D) | SVP, Physician Advisory
Burnout is an unfortunate reality for many healthcare providers and staff today. It often creeps up gradually, leaving you feeling like you’re on a treadmill that’s going faster and faster with no way to step off. It’s hard to give patients your best care when you’re juggling overwhelming inboxes, endless documentation, and constant demands on your time.
At Continuum Health IT, my goal is to help health systems and providers recognize the factors contributing to burnout and create workflows that make your day-to-day life more manageable. With this blog series, I’ll explore ways to optimize existing EHR systems and workflows to improve both patient care and provider well-being.
Understanding Burnout in the Healthcare Workplace
Burnout doesn’t happen all at once – it sneaks up on you. It starts with a full inbox, a packed schedule, and an ever-growing list of tasks. Before you know it, you’re exhausted at the end of the day, struggling to balance work and personal life.
For instance, a new EHR system might give patients more direct access to their providers, which sounds great in theory. But without a system to screen and prioritize those messages, your inbox can quickly become unmanageable.
Scheduling can add to the problem, too. Imagine starting your day with back-to-back routine visits, only to face an afternoon of complex cases that require deep focus. That imbalance can leave you drained and overwhelmed by the time you get home.
Decision Example: “How Should I Manage My Inbox?”
Let’s say your day starts with a flood of patient messages – questions about refills, appointment requests, and more. You think, “I’ll just answer a few now and catch up later.” But by midday, the inbox has doubled, and you’re already behind on your main tasks.
Instead, imagine setting up your inbox with a triage system. Routine questions could be handled by support staff, leaving only the most critical items for your attention. This simple adjustment not only saves time but also frees you up to focus on high-priority work, helping you feel more in control and less overwhelmed.
The Impact of Burnout
When burnout takes hold, it doesn’t just affect you – it impacts your team and your patients, too. Nurses and staff often feel the pressure first. They’re juggling patient care, documentation, and administrative tasks, often without the downtime they need to recharge.
For example, a nurse might stay late every day to finish charts after a busy shift, particularly in high-demand areas like labor and delivery. Over time, this extra workload leads to frustration, fatigue, and even mistakes. For patients, it might mean less attentive care, delayed treatments, or missed details that could affect outcomes.
How to Tackle Burnout
Addressing burnout starts with taking a step back and evaluating your workflows. Are there repetitive tasks that could be automated? Could note templates save time and reduce mental strain?
For example, a family doctor might create a prepopulated note template for anxiety or depression visits, complete with dropdown menus for common questions and scoring scales. These small changes can free up hours of your time, letting you focus more on patients – and giving you a chance to get home earlier.
Balancing your schedule is another key step. Mixing straightforward appointments with more complex cases can keep your day running smoothly, preventing the mental fatigue that comes from tackling too many tough cases in a row. Taking a few minutes each morning to review your schedule, test results, and patient charts can also help you feel more prepared and in control.
Leadership’s Role in Preventing Burnout
While providers need to advocate for themselves, leadership also plays a critical role in addressing burnout. Sometimes team members don’t even realize they’re burned out until it starts affecting their behavior, like being short with patients or colleagues.
Leadership can help by recognizing hard work and showing appreciation, even with something as simple as a thank-you note or a small token like a coffee gift card.
Building a Better Workflow
Leadership should also take a closer look at workflows to identify inefficiencies. For example, bringing in a consultant to evaluate processes can uncover simple changes that make a big difference – whether it’s retraining staff, updating the EHR system, or rethinking the way appointments are scheduled.
Schedule a Consultation With Continuum Health IT
Burnout doesn’t have to be part of the job. At Continuum Health IT, we specialize in helping healthcare teams create better workflows and optimize their EHR systems to improve efficiency and morale.
If you’re ready to make changes that prioritize your team’s well-being while enhancing patient care, let’s start the conversation. Contact us today to learn how we can help. Together, we can build a healthier, happier workplace.