Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of
2009 was established to create the adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHR).
This act fostered the continual growth and support of technology, specifically
within the U.S. However, both clinicians and healthcare expert at the time did
not fully grasp the high potential of clinician burnout. Some of the top reasons
included poor EHR usability, unintuitive EHR design, and high clinician
workload. This has led to an increase in clinicians retiring early due to increased
documentation, increased cognitive load, and data overload from the EHR
(Jason, 2021).
There are six key strategies which health care administrators should consider
helping avoid the increase in health care burnout. 1) Recognize that burnout is
a systemic issue that includes personal, organization, and policy factors. This
includes at both the micro (individual) and macro (organizational) level as
contributions to shortage in healthcare. 2) Provide the necessary training and
support from leadership to establish positive impact on completing daily task
with the EHR. 3) Measure organizational progress with appropriate metrics such
as key performance indicators (KPIs). These metric as used by healthcare
institutions such as Mayo Clinic can better reflect the measured factors such as
resilience, professional, contentment, and well-being. 4) Implement targeted
solutions included developing proposed changes and enough personnel to
support the organization. 5) Cultivate a stronger sense of community and peer
support. 6) Provide flexibility and work-life integration such as more flexible
schedules, improved benefits, easier access to healthcare (Kurapti, 2020).
Overall, these six strategies offer a baseline which health care administrators
can use to help avoid health care shortages. These strategies will vary based on
size and scope of the hospital but is something that health care organizations
will need to continue addressing. Specifically physician and nursing burnout is
inevitable but too much shortage can put added pressure of health care
workers and also negatively affect patient care.
References
Jason, C. (2021, February 17).Health experts misjudged Ehr Clinician Burnout at hitech
act passage. EHRIntelligence. Retrieved February 24, 2022, from
https://ehrintelligence.com/news/health-experts-misjudged-ehr-clinician-burnout-at-
hitech-act-passage
Kurapati, R. (2020, June 22). How hospital administrators can combat provider burnout
and improve the organizational bottom line. American Association for Physician
Leadership.
