Physician well-being and work burden metrics are now regularly reported to SMCH and SHC hospital executive leaders, including measures of EHR inbox burden, work-after-work data based on EHR utilization, and survey measures related to physician well-being and efficiency of practice. These data have catalyzed multiple new initiatives to decrease the massive administrative burden on physicians as well as help operational teams assess opportunities for improvement and track progress.

Physician well-being embedded as a primary domain element in the SHC Improvement Capabilities Development Program (ICDP) and SMCH Pediatric Physician Wellness Improvement (PPWI) Program.

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Mistreatment of physicians by patients, family members and visitors remains a prevalent and disturbing problem.  System-level efforts to implement the recommendations of the Healthcare Professional and Staff Mistreatment by Patients, Families, and Visitors Task Force continue. This includes efforts to prevent mistreatment (e.g. increased signage indicating mistreatment will not be tolerated, rollout of a new patient compact for all new patients at SHC), respond to mistreatment events promptly (expansion of the ReSPCT team (formerly SAFTeam) and DART team at SMCH and SHC), secondary prevention (revisal of the patient dismissal process) and regular tracking of mistreatment events by unit to determine where additional support and resources needed. 

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The WellMD & WellPhD Team spotlights progress made in supporting lactating physicians, scientists, and trainees at Stanford Medicine. Since the WellMD & WellPhD Lactation Task Force made recommendations in 2021, the WellMD & WellPhD Lactation Council has been formed and over 100 lactation spaces have been evaluated, with many upgraded to include professional-grade pumps and amenities. Additionally, each clinical department is creating a customized lactation accommodation plan specific to the demands of their specialty and a lactation culture subteam was created to help cultivate a supportive environment for lactating members of the Stanford Medicine community.

WellMD & WellPhD developed the wRVU Lactation Credit Program to mitigate compensation losses for breastfeeding and chestfeeding clinical faculty members. Leadership from both hospitals and the SoM approved the program, which aligns with Stanford Medicine’s commitment to creating a workplace where the world’s best talent can do their best work. Find details here.

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Stanford is creating it's own patient satisfaction assessment questions and evaluation system.

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In collaboration with WellMD & WellPhD, Stanford Medicine CMIOs at SMCH 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. 

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Over 15,000+ overnight meals served.

Supporting physicians at SCH and SMHC during the transition to virtual ambulatory care, including providing free home equipment for clinical faculty working from home.

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With the continued integration of technology in the clinical environment comes both opportunity and added burden to manage the resulting “unseen” work, including responding to the mounting volume of EHR in-basket messages. Stanford Medicine leadership recognize that action is necessary to address this challenge and have commissioned teams at both the adult and children’s hospitals to do just that. While much work remains, in the short time since their inception, teams have successfully integrated early solutions at the organizational, departmental, and individual levels.

Efforts to improve the procedural environment continue. This has included efforts to value physicians time by beginning cases on time, reducing OR turnaround time, enhance accuracy in scheduling to improve predictability of start times for later cases, and increase the consistency of OR team members working together. 

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.

Created in 2022, the Graduate Medical Education (GME) Well-being Committee is a system-level working group comprised of residents, fellows, faculty, and program coordinators across the School of Medicine. After gathering input from residents and fellows, the GME Well-being Committee has identified four initial areas of focus:

• Improving trainee awareness and access of mental health resources
• Supporting trainees who are parents
• Addressing mistreatment
• Fostering GME community

ICDP is a joint venture between the SHC Quality Department and the Stanford School of Medicine. Through ICDP, each department is empowered to identify, prioritize and implement improvement projects designed to improve the care we deliver and the effectiveness and supportiveness of our practice environment. In collaboration with WellMD & WellPhD, the Well-Being Director works closely with their ICDP Physician Improvement Leader, leveraging the structure, funding, and improvement capabilities provided through the ICDP program in order to improve the practice environment and physician well-being. 

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The PPWI was launched in 2021 to optimize the system and practice environment factors to reduce burnout and promote professional fulfillment for Stanford physicians based at SMCH. The program was designed in collaboration with the Quality and Performance Improvement Leadership at SMCH and the WellMD & WellPhD Team to complement improvement efforts taking place at the enterprise with a focus on SMCH-based physicians. PPWI is designed to bring together clinical and administrative leaders and SMCH leaders to work collaboratively to improve physician well-being in targeted pediatric divisions.

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

Training for Stanford Physician leaders on behaviors that foster the well-being of their team and follow-up application coaching.  To date, nearly 150 front-line leaders (i.e. division chiefs) have participated.

As part of the wellness 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 provide to leaders to aid with feedback and development.

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In an effort spearheaded by Clinical Professor Ritu Asija, MD and division leadership, the Pediatric Cardiovascular ICU (CVICU) team made remarkable progress in creating an environment where colleagues could build their best lives. After surveying the experiences of Pediatric CVICU faculty, Dr. Asija and division leadership identified hospital coverage and scheduling needs specific to the CVICU specialty. By offering flexible scheduling options and a structured reintegration process for faculty returning from leaves of absence, they've significantly improved work-life balance and reduced burnout. This achievement highlights the effectiveness of local, team-driven solutions that can be rapidly implemented in clinical healthcare settings.

With the onset of COVID-19, Stanford Health Care (SHC)’s Division of Hospital Medicine faced an increase in patient admissions, which were already high after the recent opening of 500P. SHC and the division responded to this upward trend in patient volumes — which continued even after COVID infection rates began to decline — with a series of interventions that reduced physician’s clinical work burden, ensured patient access, and allowed more time for faculty physicians to focus on teaching and research. The changes reduced the number of inpatient shifts for full time clinical faculty to 175 shifts per year — a decrease of nearly 15% from normal levels and a number that’s below the national benchmark for adult hospitalists.

The labeled caps initiative has changed the way communication takes place in the operating rooms at Stanford Medicine. Spearheaded by a multidisciplinary team, the initiative involves adding medical professionals’ names and roles to surgical caps, a seemingly simple move that has sparked profound changes by enhancing teamwork, improving connection, and fostering a strong sense of inclusion and belonging.

A year-long quality improvement study involving 967 members of the Stanford Medicine OR team revealed that 80% of physicians reported substantial improvements in teamwork, thanks to this innovative physician-led grassroots initiative. As of October 2024, the team had distributed 6,500 labeled surgical caps for team members in 31 roles at Stanford Medicine. If you are interested in introducing labeled caps to your team, please contact Teresa Roman-Micek at TRomanmicek@stanfordhealthcare.org.

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. Open to all benefits-eligible faculty, residents, and fellows.

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In partnership with WellMD & WellPhD, the Healthy Living program offers individualized coaching sessions for enhancing work-life integration and professional fulfillment. Evidence in Stanford physicians demonstrates improvement in burnout and work-life integration. Participants partner with a nationally-certified coach experienced in working with School of Medicine faculty scientists, faculty physicians, residents, fellows, and other clinicians. 

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Designed to save you time on personal tasks. Program saved over 3,378 hours for Stanford Medicine faculty, residents, and fellows in first 12 months (over 2 hours per request).

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

Curated list of COVID-19 Support available to physicains, including  childcare, COVID+ support, lodging, etc.  Read more about the commitment Stanford Medicine has made to supporting physicians during the pandemic.

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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.

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Office of Faculty Development and Diversity’s Diversity Liaison Program was recently expanded to basic science departments, widening it from it’s original scope of clinical departments.

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Physician Resource Network (PRN) Support offers confidential, independent, legally-protected collegial support and resources for life’s inevitable clinical, professional, and personal challenges. This program typically consists of 1-2 interactions and is available for all faculty, residents, and fellows.

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The Faculty Staff Help Center is available for individuals, couples, and families and provides short-term professional and confidential counseling about work-related or personal issues. Family members can enroll independently. This benefit includes 10 free sessions per topic and is open to faculty, residents, fellows, and post-docs.

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Creation of multiple new portals for voice and input including greater than 40 listening sessions by WellMD, wellness survey, listening sessions with department wellbeing directors, website digital suggestion box.

Systematic assessment of professional fulfillment, burnout, leadership, and self-care dimensions at the department, division, and training program level with analysis and reports with benchmarks.