Stephanie Byerly | Physician Burnout

Healthcare's Answer:

The Quadruple Aim

Improving the work life of healthcare providers

Bringing Light To

Physician Burnout & Wellness

Plaguing Greater Than 50% of US Physicians

The development of burnout is thought to be a gradual process over time. It is characterized by many things, including but not limited to emotional exhaustion, detachment, cynicism, diminishing feelings of accomplishment, decreased effectiveness, loss of professionalism, a tendency to view people as objects rather than human beings, depression, and suicidal ideation and/ or completion.

And the causes of burnout can be directly attributable to issues such as:

Loss of control over work
Increased performance measurement (quality, cost, patient experience)
Increasing complexity of medical care
Implementation of the electronic medical record
Major inefficiencies in the practice environment

“I will attend to my own health, well-being, and abilities in order to provide care of the highest standard.”

Healthcare's Answer:

The Quadruple Aim

Improving the work life of healthcare providers

Enhancing Patient Experience

Improving Population Health

Reducing Costs

The New Fourth Aim: Improving the Worklife of Healthcare Providers

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement came up with the triple aim to as above. They realized that burnout could jeopardize the success of the triple aim so a quadruple aim was added. The quad aim was geared at improving the worklife of healthcare providers. This included optimizing the team’s efficiency, dynamics, and improve the training of the team on certain tasks in order to shift some of the responsibility from the physicians to other members of the team.

“Although some factors driving burnout are larger than the organization, organizational-level efforts can have a profound effect on physician well-being.” (Shanafelt, 2017)