Fix daily irritants to reduce clinician burnout, KLAS says

The KLAS Arch Collaborative wanted to learn more about how doctor and nurse burnout has evolved since the pandemic, and what hospitals and health systems can do to address it. So it conducted a provider experience survey focused on clinicians’ use of electronic health records between January 2022 and August 2023.

WHY IT MATTERS

KLAS says the data in its study, Understanding & Addressing Trends in Physician & Nurse Burnout 2024, indicates that burnout rates are slightly decreasing among doctors and nurses, but are still above pre-pandemic levels. 

Of the 20,229 physicians and 32,782 nurses KLAS surveyed over the 20-month period, they cited several contributing factors.

To alleviate burnout, doctors and nurses want improved staffing levels, better alignment with leaders and EHR efficiency, while nurses want better compensation.

“Physicians who are starting to feel burned out often cite no control over workload and a chaotic work environment as contributors,” said KLAS researchers in the new report.

“In contrast, those who are completely burned out cite no control over workload, lack of autonomy and lack of shared values with leadership.”

Staffing is still a key issue for nurses, according to the study, but full-blown nurse burnout mirrors that of doctors, according to the study.

“Nurses who are starting to feel burned out most often cite staffing, while those who are completely burned out cite similar contributors to physicians who are completely burned out,” the researchers said. 

While the perception that their EHRs inhibit quality also had an impact on their burnout, the good news is that after improving staffing and better aligning leadership to their concerns, “Health systems can focus on improving efficiency irritants can build clinicians’ frustration to an overwhelming point,” they added.

Researchers said the KLAS data showed that “trust flourishes and burnout decreases” when there is a partnership with IT team who reduce EHR and other daily technological inefficiencies that can frustrate clinicians.

In one member example included in the report, the State University of New York’s Upstate Medical University, a member of the Arch Collaborative, was able to boost efficiency for clinicians by having their chief wellness officer lead a training program that reduced after-hours documentation by 10%. 

THE LARGER TREND

The KLAS researchers note that since 2018, burnout rates have increased across the healthcare workforce, though they started to level off again in late 2022. 

While staffing shortages are a top contributor in this new study, those who are starting to feel burned out cite efficiency-related issues as reasons, and that means there is an opportunity to prevent excessive burnout by increasing EHR efficiency early on.

In October, KLAS released data from a previous study that validated vendor offerings and firms that work better for providers.

KLAS evaluated 67 healthcare organizations opinions on EHR service and product offerings to learn which offered efficiencies that transformed clinical programs.

“It is one of the metrics with which clinical staff are least satisfied – only 46% of respondents agree their EHR enables efficiency,” the KLAS researchers said about their clinical EHR efficiency report.

ON THE RECORD

“Regarding EHR efficiency, physicians (and some nurses) report they are increasingly doing more work with fewer resources,” KLAS researchers noted in the report. 

“If organizations are unable to hire more staff to distribute the workload, they can instead ensure clinicians receive ample EHR education and that their workflows are optimized.”

Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.