Physician Practice Employees With Workplace Wellness In Mind

Burnout. Stress. Anxiety. Each holds momentous weight for employees in workplaces throughout the US and world. Moreover, physician practice employees suffer high levels of workplace anxiety and potentially career burnout. The culprit for workplace disengagement in the healthcare field? One can point a finger immediately at the COVID-19 pandemic and its lingering effects on healthcare providers, professionals and healthcare labor, alike.

These essential workers, labeled for the roles they held in caring for the sickly during the pandemic, worked under extreme duress, long hours, high anxiety, and mass burnout. They worked, not remotely, but in the eye of the storm, delivering care and keeping the healthcare machine running at full capacity. Regardless of which role people hold in the workforce, overwork is the culprit for how workplace wellness, mental health and overall physical wellness are regarded.

Causes of Mental Health Anxiety in the Workplace

The after effects of a still burgeoning COVID-19 pandemic has the US and world reeling with the Great Resignation, high inflation, the highest increase in food prices in 40 years, the high price of fuel, utilities, housing, and more. Families already living a check-to-check lifestyle feel the pinch more and more with higher anxiety. This stress and anxiety accompany them to the workplace.

Add to the mix the socially isolating effect of working remotely and caregiving for the entire family, while trying to work, and one can see from where the source of workplace wellness issues arises.

What this means for employers, and this includes physicians as business owners, is the probability of declining mental health among many employees. In addition, when frontline workers with high stress and high anxiety interact with patients, the result is like oil and water. Patient satisfaction often is a direct reflection of the kindness and warmth of the physician practice staff. When someone is having a bad day making ends meet and a patient who already brings anxiety to the doctor’s office commingle, the effect is often dissatisfaction on one side or another.

Workplace Wellness Targets Individuals

Traditionally, workplace wellness programs targeted every employee regardless of demographic, psychographic or workplace role. Programs were a one-size fits all with no delineation or specificity about the employee’s individual needs.

Today, targeting mental health concerns in physician practices requires a personalized approach. The Great Resignation during the pandemic caused employees to reconsider their positions with employers. Was their job worthy? Was it worthwhile? How did it make them feel?

To ensure that physicians make employees feel aligned with the physician practice model and philosophy, physician practice managers need to align with employees. Because everyone is human, that alignment goes above and beyond a title and position.

Suggestions to Boost Morale and Reduce Mental Health Issues

An employer cannot solve issues within the home; however, considerations that may help make the workplace happier include:

• Audit and analysis of profits vs. wages
• Rewards for hard-working employees
• Flexible schedules for those who need extra time for little ones or caregiving roles with elderly parents
• Use of technology and automation to help ease the manual burden of patient intake forms, scheduling, reports, or reviews
• Extended vacation or paid-time-off

Easing the stress and anxiety of employees, who spend more than half their waking hours in the workforce, could very well make your physician practice a happier and more productive workplace. Karma Health brings the expertise to treat physician practice employees with workplace wellness in mind.