Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T05:40:07.906Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 12 - Solution #8: Make Changes in Workflow in Organizations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 July 2022

John E. Kello  and
Joseph A. Allen
John E. Kello
Affiliation:
Davidson College, North Carolina
Joseph A. Allen
Affiliation:
University of Utah
Get access

Summary

As important as individual solutions and team-based solutions are, there is a critical third level of potential solutions that can and should be implemented, namely, system-level solutions. Some of these broader solutions can be implemented fairly directly by leaders in local healthcare systems, including individual practices and hospitals. One especially important “local systems” solution is workflow analysis and workflow simplification. As valuable as improving workflow is, it is a challenge to persuade leaders to engage in such a change process, and it is a challenge to persuade those who would benefit from workflow simplification to actually change their behavior. The pandemic is providing a major “reset” opportunity, the chance to rethink how we do things in general and, more particularly, in healthcare.

Keywords

team culturegoal settingremoving barriers
Type
Chapter
Information
The Burned Out Physician
Managing the Stress and Reducing the Errors
 , pp. 158 - 167
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

AHRQ. (2021). Flowchart. Digital Healthcare Research. https://digital.ahrq.gov/health-it-tools-and-resources/evaluation-resources/workflow-assessment-health-it-toolkit/all-workflow-tools/flowchart.Google Scholar
Anderson, J., Leubner, J., & Brown, S. (2020). EHR overtime: An analysis of time spent after hours by family physicians. Family Medicine, 52(2), 135–137.Google Scholar
Berg, S. (2019a). Physician burnout: The pledge your organization should make now. AMA Physician Health. Retrieved from www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/physician-health/physician-burnout-pledge-your-organization-should-make-now.Google Scholar
Berg, S. (2019b). These 4 workflow changes help cut burnout by 45%. AMA Physician Health. Retrieved from www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/physician-health/these-4-workflow-changes-help-cut-burnout-45.Google Scholar
DeChant, P. F., Acs, A., Rhee, K. B., Boulanger, T. S., Snowdon, J. L., Tutty, M. A., Sinsky, C. A., & Thomas Craig, K. J. (2019). Effect of organization-directed workplace interventions on physician burnout: A systematic review. Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Innovations, Quality & Outcomes, 3(4), 384–408. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocpiqo.2019.07.006.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Downing, N. L., Bates, D. W., & Longhurst, C. A. (2018). Physician burnout in the electronic health record era: Are we ignoring the real cause? Annals of Internal Medicine, 169(1), 50–51. https://doi.org/10.7326/M18–0139.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hung, D. Y., Harrison, M. I., Truong, Q., & Du, X. (2018). Experiences of primary care physicians and staff following lean workflow redesign. BMC Health Services Research, 18(1), 274.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lavoie, K. L., Rash, J. A., & Campbell, T. S. (2017). Changing provider behavior in the context of chronic disease management: Focus on clinical inertia. Annual Review of Pharmacology and Toxicology, 57, 263–283.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Linzer, M., Poplau, S., Grossman, E., Varkey, A., Yale, S., Williams, E., … & Kohnhorst, D. (2015). A cluster randomized trial of interventions to improve work conditions and clinician burnout in primary care: Results from the Healthy Work Place (HWP) study. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 30(8), 1105–1111.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×