A Weekly Email Ends Physician Burnout

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Physician burnout is bad. Doctors continue to quit, retire or kill themselves.  There are many reasons this is occurring but the biggest is the pressures of today’s healthcare system. So how do we fix it?  Easy.  A program called Lumunos, created by administrators, sends out a weekly email that addresses a specific subject, such as how to say no to patients with compassion and clarity. About 350 physicians across all participating hospitals currently receive the email.  That’s not all.  “Those emails build to monthly 45-minute meetings led by a facilitator who keeps the conversation productive and focused.”  Okay, I will stop myself there.  I do appreciate any attempt to help with physician burnout but without fixing the cause then all you are getting are doctors deleting these emails.  Guaranteed.

Some of the hospitals also hold evening dinner meetings every few months based on a model called Finding Meaning in Medicine developed by Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen, a professor at the University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine. A few hospitals also host annual retreats for doctors and their families.

Do you think doctors love going back out at night for these meetings?  Once again, the loss of control is the issue.  Emails and meetings may help but, without addressing the real issues, doctors will continue to fry.

And, by the way, I went on the Lumunos site and never saw any metrics or studies proving that it works.  I thought that stuff was supposed to be important?