HALICON 2019

Facing a rising epidemic of burnout in physicians and advanced practice professionals, healthcare leaders across Minnesota collaborated to launch a data-led statewide improvement effort at the Minnesota Hospital Association. In 2016, the baseline year of the initiative, 104 individual hospitals (representing 56 healthcare sites/systems) participated in a baseline survey of burnout in their frontline clinicians. Of the 13,693 individuals invited to participate, 43% responded to the survey. In 2017, the MHA surveyed the front line again, this time involving 113 individual hospitals (representing 63 sites/systems) and inviting 19,350 physicians and advanced practice professionals to participate, achieving a response rate of 29%. To date, the MHA healthcare burnout survey reveals that over half of physicians and APPs (51%) feel great stress because of their work. In comparing Minnesota data to national data, we know that 34% of Minnesota MD/DOs and APPs are emotionally exhausted, 17% suffer from depersonalization, and 37% are burned out (using the MBI two-question screen). When exploring the drivers of burnout, we find that over one-third of Minnesota physicians and APPs disagree with the notion that they have enough time for what is important (36%). Close to one-third report they disagree with the idea that they have control over how they work (30%) or that resources are allocated fairly (28%). This driver data, coupled with the burnout prevalence data, reveal a problem that is ripe for response, growing in magnitude, but likely responsive to change. When asked to identify those key factors that would enable them to thrive professionally, physicians and APPs reported that work-life balance (65%), meaningful work (52%), high quality care (44%), and control (41%) would be important areas for attention. Efforts to develop a statewide quality improvement roadmap around burnout, focused on organizational level interventions and actions, practice level interventions and actions, and individual level interventions and actions, is underway. Rahul Koranne, MD, MBA, FACP will discuss how a data analytics approach to burnout in the healthcare industry has been built, key lessons learned and most importantly specific strategies and actions that are successfully bending the burnout curve in this important industry.