Berks County Medical Society Medical Record Spring_2018 - 14

Tower Health Initiatives
and Resources to Address
Physician Burnout

Physician Burnout

T

Mindfulness

T

he new buzz word for an ageless process is Mindfulness.
It is not mysterious or exotic. Mindfulness is the basic
human capacity to actively stay open and aware of the
moment without judgment of our thoughts or emotions. Simply
observing our experiences without passing them through the sieve
of conditioning allows a freedom to fully participate in the moment.
Thus, there are countless ways to practice mindfulness in your
everyday life; even the busiest life can benefit from mindfulness.
Although mindfulness is innate and available to all of us
all of the time, it takes a considerable commitment to practice
and cultivate. In our very hectic lives it is often difficult to pay
full attention to the moment. Our thoughts are often focused
on the future or stuck in the past. Mindfulness allows us the
opportunity to enhance our curiosity about how our mind works in
a compassionate and loving way. This non-judgmental awareness
14

|

www.berkscms.org

100
90
80
70
60
50

30
20
10
0

236 RESPONDENTS

39%
50%

n

Tower Health Provider Burnout Level:

n

National Provider Burnout Level:

MAIN CAUSES FOR
PROVIDER BURNOUT
n

EMR

n

Work

flow

50%

40

39%

ower Health Partners sponsored a free CME presentation
by Kolin Good, MD, on the subject of physician burnout
in May of 2017. Dr. Good and a group which includes
Dr. Adam P. Sigal (Emergency Medicine) and Nicole Heitmann
(Director, Clinical Integration Operations) have been collecting and
organizing information on the topic and working on how to best
present and utilize the literature. Dr. Good has also been working
with Tower Health Partners Provider Network, Credentialing,
and Enrollment committee to move projects addressing burnout
forward.
Among the resources Dr. Good and her colleagues have
promoted to physicians are:
* Take the Mini-Z Burnout Survey online, with results
immediately available, at: https://www.stepsforward.org/
modules/physician-burnout-survey
* Learn more about the AMA's STEPSforward module for
preventing physician burnout: https://www.stepsforward.org/
modules/physician-burnout
* National Academy of Medicine Perspective paper on physician
suicide at: https://nam.edu/breaking-the-culture-of-silence-onphysician-suicide/
* Institute for HealthCare Improvement White Paper IHI
Framework for Improving Joy in Work Perlo J, Balik B,
Swensen S, Kabcenell A, Landsman J, Feeley D. IHI Framework
for Improving Joy in Work. IHI White Paper. Cambridge,
Massachusetts: Institute for Healthcare Improvement; 2017.
(Available at ihi.org)

WAYS TO REDUCE
PROVIDER BURNOUT
(NEXT STEPS)

 easure Mini-Z
1. M
2. I dentify high-need areas
3. D
 evelop targeted initiatives for each area

Physician Wellness program
A confidential referral service is available to Tower Health
physicians and their immediate family members, designed to
connect those experiencing professional or personal behavioral
health problems with appropriate sources of care and support. A
request for services can be made by calling the secure helpline at
484-628-9898 (Monday-Friday, 8am-4:30pm) or by submitting a
confidential form online at https://reading.towerhealth.org/form/
physician-wellness/.

by Deborah Bevvino, Ph.D., Psychologist, Family Medicine
Residency Program, Reading Hospital / Tower Health
often generalizes to others. When mindfulness is cultivated it can
reduce the effects of stress that is a leading cause of illness.
Mindfulness can also help alleviate stress through improving
emotion regulation, leading to better mood and better ability to
handle stress (Remmers, Topolinski, & Koole, 2016).
Mindfulness gives us easy access in every moment to an ancient
approach - now evidenced based - to manage the stresses
encountered in modern life. That's quite a bargain for health and
wellbeing.
Remmers, C., Topolinski, S. and Koole, S.L (2016) Why
Being Mindful May Have More Benefits Than you Realize:
Mindfulness Improves Both Explicit and Implict Mood
Regulation. Mindfulness, 7, 829-837.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-016-0520-1

https://www.stepsforward.org/ https://www.stepsforward.org/ https://www.nam.edu/breaking-the-culture-of-silence-on-physician-suicide/ https://reading.towerhealth.org/form/ http://www.ihi.org https://www.doi.org/10.1007/s12671-016-0520-1 http://www.berkscms.org

Berks County Medical Society Medical Record Spring_2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Berks County Medical Society Medical Record Spring_2018