Healthcare is becoming one of the leading industry where our team members (providers, leaders, clinical team, front office teams and billing teams) are experiencing extensive burnout symptoms, resulting in a negative impact on our practices and patients, because of today's massive healthcare demands. Burnout can be devastating to our practices because patients will notice almost immediately that you just can’t keep up, resulting in patients going elsewhere for their healthcare needs. Which negatively impact the practice revenue. When we talk about burnout in healthcare, the talk seems to be mostly focused on our providers. Although our providers are super important, their support teams are just as essential to keeping providers going in their day to day activities. In this article we are going to discuss a little bit on how to recognize burnout in your team members, and what you can do to combat the symptoms.
So, what is burn out anyway, it is simply defined by Psychology Today as “when you’re not in control of how you carry out your job function when the goals don’t resonate with you when you feel as if you have lack of support in your job function.” According to Sherri Bourg Cater Psy.D in Psychology Today, “The tell-tale signs of Burnout. Do you have them?, “When individuals on your team have chronic burn out, you will see team member have physical and emotional exhaustion, they will be cynical and detach from the job function, and they will express feelings of being ineffective and lack the sight of what accomplishments they may have completed.” STOP HERE and think about your team, write all your team members names down from (providers, leaders, clinical team, front office teams and billing teams) and then ask yourself the questions below for each individual on your team and see if you have a burnout issue in your practices(s).
Does anyone complain about being tired all the time (chronic fatigue)?
Do you hear individuals complain at work about how they haven’t been able to sleep (insomnia)?
Are there individuals having a hard time concentrating or forgetting important and essential details when they haven’t in the past?
Are there individuals expressing the loss of enjoyment or are pessimistic about their position, when they haven’t in the past!
Are you seeing an increase in irritability and anger about items that in the past would not have bothered them before?
Big ones, the team member had started to have a lack of productivity and performance issues when they were high producers in the past.
This is just a sample of questions to answer, but if a great deal of your team members in your practice(s) have yes answers, then it is a clear sign your team is experiencing BURNOUT. Which is negatively impacting your practice, even if you don’t see the physical operational signs yet?
Unfortunately, healthcare is an inherently stressful industry, and there is no real way to get around the stressful situations and duties your team will experience. However, as a leader in your practice(s) it is your responsibility to recognize burnout and help your team members get through it. Here a few ways to combat burnout in your practice
1. Recognize burnout as a genuine issue in the practice, just like you would for operational and revenue cycle items.
2. Build anti-burnout partnerships to build accountability between team’s members to help identify and reduce burnout.
3. Enforce lunch and break times with no exceptions, they must leave their desks or step away from work for no less than 30 minutes.
4. Encourage and push for individuals to go home at the time they are scheduled or step away from work for a while to spend time with family or themselves.
5. Look at the current workload and find better ways to work the load (efficiencies).
If you believe your practice is experiencing burnout which is affecting your overall efficiencies of your practice then it is time to make some changes to bring your team back to a positive environment. Revitalize Healthcare Solutions can assist you in restoring your practices back to a positive state and reducing the burnout for your teams. Contact us below for a 1-hour free consultation.
Cissy Mangrum, MBA, CMPE, CPC
Revitalize Healthcare Solutions
CEO/Principle Consultant
P: 615-397-5042
E: cissy.mangrum@cmhealthconsulting.net
www.revitalizehealthcaresolutions.com
References:
Carter, Sherrie Bourg. “The Tell-Tale Signs of Burnout ... Do You Have Them?” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 13 Nov. 2013, www.psychologytoday.com/blog/high-octane-women/201311/the-tell-tale-signs-burnout-do-you-have-them.
LearnVest. “10 Signs You're Burning Out -- And What To Do About It.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 3 Jan. 2018, www.forbes.com/sites/learnvest/2013/04/01/10-signs-youre-burning-out-and-what-to-do-about-it/#3d43a934625b.
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