Addressing the Key Drivers of Burnout: Transforming Ambulatory Practice

Clinician burnout is associated with a number of factors, including clinicians spending a great deal of time doing work that is below their level of training and thus unsatisfying and inefficient. One structural antidote to these factors is the building of teams that truly share the care with clinicians. Professional team members - in particular nurses, pharmacists and behaviorists - are capable of independently caring for many patients in a typical ambulatory practice panel. Unlicensed team members, in particular medical assistants - if at least two are available per clinician and if properly trained - can assume responsibility for electronic medical records (EMR) documentation, population management, and health coaching. Some exemplar primary care practices have succeeded in creating effective teams that reduce burnout and have constructed a business case to support those teams. Lessons from primary care can help to inform transformation in specialty ambulatory practices.https://openworks.mdanderson.org/hrc_burnout_presentations/1002/thumbnail.jp