Physician and scientist well-being at Stanford Medicine remains a key focus for Stanford Medicine’s institutional and departmental leadership. See some of the progress being made throughout Stanford Medicine below.

Please note that a SUNet ID may be required to access some of the links below.

Organization-level Improvement Efforts

• Stanford Children's Health and Stanford Health Care Board of Directors — Physician wellness metrics are now reported to the SCH and SHC Boards of Directors, including survey metrics and work-after-work data based on EHR utilization.

• Hospital Improvement Programs — Physician well-being is a primary focus in the SHC Improvement Capabilities Development Program (ICDP) and SCH Pediatric Physician Wellness Improvement (PPWI) Program.
  
  
• Mistreatment Task Force — Implementation of recommendations from Healthcare Professional and Staff Mistreatment by Patients, Families, and Visitors Task Force to best mitigate patient mistreatment of physicians across Stanford Medicine are underway. This includes expansion of DART and SAFTeams at SCH and SHC to rapidly respond to inappropriate behavior by patients, families, and visitors.

• Lactation Task Force — Efforts to implement recommendations across SoM, SHC, and SCH to provide lacation resources for working physicians are now underway.

• SHC transition away from Press Ganey — Stanford is creating its own patient satisfaction assessment questions and evaluation system.

• Clinician Logged-In Outside Clinic (CLOC) Tool — In collaboration with WellMD & WellPhD, Stanford Medicine CMIOs at SCH and SHC developed the Clinician Logged in Outside Clinic (CLOC) assessment tool, which tracks the extent to which physicians work after hours in the ambulatory environment. 

• Free overnight meal program for SHC and SCH residents — To date, over 15,000+ overnight meals have been served to residents and fellows.

• Ambulatory Transformation Taskforce — The ATT is providing support to physicians at SCH and SHC during the transition to virtual ambulatory care, including providing free home equipment for clinical faculty working from home.

• In basket messages — There are currently major initiatives across both hospitals to address the proliferation in basket messages to physicians.

• Efforts to improve OR access — Efforts are underway to encourage elective cases to occur during typical clinical hours rather than after hours.

• Operational plan metrics — Physician well-being is now part of operational plan key metrics for Stanford Medicine, with key wellness metrics established alongside quality & safety and patient experience. 

Department-level Improvement Efforts

• Department-level improvement projects – During FY22, 33 active department-level improvement projects in 18 clinical departments are focused on addressing issues in the practice environment to improve faculty wellness.

• Pediatric Physician Wellness Improvement (PPWI) Program – PPWI was launched in 2021 to improve practice environment factors in targeted departments and divisions to reduce burnout and promote professional fulfillment for Stanford physicians based at LPCH.

• Scribe pilots – Multiple departments are piloting scribes in improvement projects to reduce the burden of work after work. 

• Leadership training and executive coaching – Training is being offered by the WellMD & WellPhD Team for Stanford physician leaders on behaviors that foster the well-being of their team and follow-up application coaching. To date, 62 front-line leaders (i.e. division chiefs) have participated.

• Regular assessment of leadership behaviors – As part of the Stanford Medicine Faculty Survey, all Stanford Medicine division chiefs and department chairs are regularly assessed by physicians in their group on leadership behaviors that promote physician well-being. Results are provided to leaders to assist with feedback and development.

New Resources for Faculty

• WellConnect expansion - WellConnect has now expnded to include Stanford Medicine basic- and clinical-science faculty, widening it's initial scope of Stanford Meidicine residents and fellows. Stanford WellConnect is a confidential mental health referral and consultation service that facilitates timely access to counseling, stress management and coping skills, wellness coaching (including strategies to mitigate burnout), and mental health services.

• Coaching for physicians & scientists – In partnership with WellMD & WellPhD, the Healthy Living Program offers an individalized coaching program specifically for heath care physicians, clinicians, and faculty scientists.

• WellMD & WellPhD concierge support program - Circles Concierge is designed to save physicians and scientits time on personal tasks. In the first 12 months, the program saved over 3,378 hours of time for Stanford Medicine faculty, residents, and fellows, an average of more than 2 hours per request.

• Physician & scientist support curation and communication - WellMD & WellPhD creates and curates physical, emotional, psychological, and family care suppot and regularly communicates these resources to physicians, scientists, and leaders across Stanford Medicine. Examples include resources for faculty physicians, faculty basic scientists, and broad resources.

• Executive coaching - Executive coaching is offered for clinical and basic science faculty with fees subsidized by WellMD & WellPhD.

• Building community – WellMD & WellPhD is sponsoring ways to create connection with colleagues such as Story Rounds, Literature & Medicine, Commensality Groups.

• Portfolio of COVID-19 care and support for physicians – WellMD & WellPhD curates and maintains a list of COVID-19 support that is available to physicains at Stanford Medicine. These resources include obtaining antigen tests, protocols on return to work after testing positive, emotional support, and more. Read more about the commitment Stanford Medicine has made to supporting physicians during the pandemic.

• Academic Peer Advisory & Support Panel – As a result of the challenges brought on by the pandemic, in 2020 the Stanford Medicine Office of Academic Affairs launched a peer advisory and support panel to advise and support faculty regarding career advancement.

• Diversity liaison expansion to basic science departments – The Office of Faculty Development and Diversity’s (OFDD) Diversity Liaison Program was recently expanded to basic science departments, widening it from it’s original scope of clinical departments.

Understanding Needs

• New portals for voice and input - WellMD & WellPhD has recently created new portals for input including more than 40 listening sessions to date, the Stanford Medicine Faculty Survey, listening sessions with Department Well-being Directors, and a digital suggestion box.

• Systematic assessment - WellMD & WellPhD leads a systematic assessment of professional fulfillment, burnout, leadership, and self-care dimensions at the department, division, and training program level and provides analysis and reports with benchmarks to leadership.

Stanford Medicine physicians and scientists can learn more about these and other initiatives on our Progress in Well-being at Stanford page (SUNet ID required).