Two health systems of vastly different sizes are using technology to tackle a widespread problem—clinician burnout.
Burnout was already an issue for providers and the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the problem. A July study in JAMA Health Forum found nearly half of nurses and a third of physicians reported high levels of burnout. Also, more than 40% of nurses said they’d leave the profession if they could.
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Faced with those kind of statistics, employers are retooling their approach to wellness, and making use of technology to help workers. For their part, digital health companies are developing solutions to help.
In Albany, Georgia, Phoebe Putney Health System has invested in a wellness platform to help employees manage their physical, mental and financial well-being.
In 2021, the four-hospital, 4,500-employee system was dealing with high rates of turnover and an employee base that didn’t feel supported, said Caitlin Downs, Phoebe Putney’s wellness manager. Hospital leadership made it a priority to change the narrative, she said.
“We’re a large healthcare system with many entities and we’re spread out,” Downs said. “The stakes are high because turnover rates are high.”
Through the platform, Phoebe Putney offers employees preventive and biometric screenings as well as mindfulness and meditation programs. As a self-insured employer, the screenings can help the system potentially control costs related to cancer, hypertension and diabetes.
Downs said 70% of employees covered under its insurance plan have taken a biometric screening and she’s seen a change in attitude among employees using the app. “Employees are really transitioning from that survival mode into thrive mode,” she said. “And I think that’s where our mindset is. I think everyone has just been able to take a deep breath.”
At Pullman Regional, a rural, acute-care hospital in Pullman, Washington, the brunt of the pandemic didn’t come to it until a year after other hospitals were hit by the illness. But when the pandemic come to Pullman Regional, it hit hard, and employees’ mental health remains affected, said Veronica Hopwood, the hospital’s wellness coordinator.
The system has revamped its wellness strategy, partly by investing in a tech platform, Hopwood said. It also has created incentive programs around staying healthy and offered self-care services such as massages.
“We look at wellness from a holistic lens,” Hopwood said. “It’s not just physical health. It’s about meeting employees’ needs. We’ve focused a lot on self care for the past three years because it had been so important to our population.”
The app helps Pullman Regional screen its employees for preventive health, and other wellness initiatives focus on physical, financial and mental health, among other things. There’s even a section with jokes.
About 400 out of the 600 employees have used the app, and the feedback has been positve, Hopwood said.
Unlike other systems, Pullman Regional has not experienced dramatic turnover among its nurses. “Hopefully with the wellness program and some of the other stuff we do, we can maintain that,” said Carrie Coen, chief reliability officer.
