Internal medical staff survey highlights opportunities for improvement
The results are in from the medical staff engagement survey that took place in June and July. The survey was divided into two parts and went out to 1,675 internal prescribers, including physician assistants, nurse practitioners, nurse anesthetists, dentists, optometrists and physicians. The first section asked questions about:
- Leadership and management
- Patient care
- Staff effectiveness
- Organizational culture
- Physical plant, technology and environment
- Physical partnership
- Medical staff effectiveness
- Overall satisfaction
The second section focused on professional burnout, which is a growing national trend among healthcare providers.
When the survey closed, 823 (49 percent) had responded.
Overall, the medical center received favorable rankings on the quality of patient care, the physical plant, technology and environment. Staff effectiveness also earned positive marks regarding teamwork, responsiveness and respectful interactions. But the survey also revealed opportunities for improvement.
Feeling the burn
Cincinnati Children’s care providers are experiencing burnout at a rate that is on par with other similar institutions across the country. According to the survey, 15.3 percent reported a sense of depersonalization, measured by how often they feel they’ve become more callous toward people since starting their job. Another 46.9 percent said they felt emotionally drained from their work.
“The drivers of burnout are very different from specialty to specialty, from discipline to discipline,” says Derek Wheeler, MD, Chief of Staff. “They’re different even in individual departments, so you can’t take a shotgun, one-size-fits-all approach to fixing it.”
Plans are underway to conduct focus groups aimed at drilling down to concerns in each area. “We’re also working with Jessica Kahn’s group, which promotes physician/researcher wellness and work-life integration, to tackle some of the issues,” says Wheeler.
Morale is low, Wheeler acknowledges. The uncertainty and changes in healthcare are a huge contributor. But frontline commitment to Cincinnati Children’s vision and mission remains strong.
“We understand that leadership needs to be more visible, to say thank you more often, to listen more and to build relationships with the members of our medical staff. We also need to do whatever we can to remove the hassle factor,” he says. “Reducing burnout is a high priority and one of my biggest responsibilities.”
Wheeler plans to repeat the survey in two years to measure the organization’s progress.
“I’m not surprised by the survey results,” he says. “Our providers are under a lot of pressure. But having this data tells us where our challenges are and gives us a solid starting point for making some important improvements.”
