The pandemic has pushed nurses to the brink. A recent survey by the American Nurses Association reports that 51 percent of nurses feel overwhelmed, 76 percent report exhaustion and burnout, and nurse-to-patient workloads have tripled. Hospitals function on the back of nurses, and the current burnout levels cannot be sustained.
EHR systems have fallen far short of their promise – leading to clinician stress and burnout and less time for interaction with patients. In a 2019 JAMA survey, more than half of the issues associated with clinician stress and burnout stemmed from inefficient EHR systems.
These were the key themes of a recent HIT Consultant guest article by Dr. John M. Ciccone, Chief Medical Officer, DSS, Inc., titled, “Nurse Burnout Even Bigger Challenge Than Physician Burnout.”The article also highlighted how better healthcare IT that requires less time spent with the EHR – and more time at the bedside – will significantly reduce crushing workloads. This is what Juno EHR offers to the marketplace. 👉🏻 Click here to read the full article.
The healthcare industry stands at a precipice, facing an unprecedented crisis of clinician burnout. While the pandemic undeniably pushed healthcare professionals to their limits, a significant contributor to this widespread exhaustion predates and continues to exacerbate the problem: inefficient Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems. This article will delve into the depths of clinician burnout, highlighting why it has reached epidemic proportions, how current EHR systems often fall short, and how truly optimized EHR solutions, like those from Juno Health, can be the antidote to this pervasive challenge.
Burnout has become a widespread issue across many industries, but it has hit medical professionals at an alarming rate, causing astounding levels of stress and fatigue. More than just being tired at the end of a long day, clinician burnout is defined as a long-term stress reaction that can manifest as emotional exhaustion, a distressing lack of empathy for patients, and even reduced feelings of personal achievement. This is not merely an individual problem; it is an epidemic sweeping through U.S. healthcare, carrying significant ripple effects for patient safety, care quality, and employee turnover.
Nurses, in particular, have been pushed to the brink. A recent survey by the American Nurses Association paints a stark picture: 51 percent of nurses feel overwhelmed, and a staggering 76 percent report exhaustion and burnout. Compounding this, nurse-to-patient workloads have tripled. Hospitals fundamentally rely on nurses, and the current levels of burnout are simply unsustainable. Indeed, some experts, like Dr. John M. Ciccone, Chief Medical Officer at DSS, Inc., argue that nurse burnout is an even bigger challenge than physician burnout. This sentiment is underscored by a 2022 study revealing that burnout-related turnover costs hospitals an average of $16,736 per nurse per year employed. It's a crisis that healthcare leaders, IT operations, and patient care providers must confront head-on.
Beyond the immediate stresses of the pandemic, several factors contribute to this critical state:
• Labor Shortages: Healthcare, like many industries, has been deeply affected by staffing troubles. This forces existing healthcare workers to do more with less, whether it's seeing an increased number of patients or shouldering more administrative tasks. The timing is particularly dire, as baby boomer clinicians are retiring just as their generation is likely to require more care, contributing to a predicted physician shortage of up to 86,000 by 2036.
• Work Conditions: Healthcare environments can range from busy to outright chaotic. Nurses and physicians often feel stressed from constantly shuffling between exams and follow-ups. A poor organizational culture, where clinicians have little control over their work in a hectic environment, creates a perfect storm for stress, burnout, and turnover.
• Inefficiencies: Perhaps the most insidious driver of burnout, particularly when discussing technology, is inefficiency. Adding administrative burdens to already excessive workloads wears clinicians thin. This problem often stems directly from the very systems they use daily, most notably, Electronic Health Records (EHRs).
EHR systems were initially introduced into the healthcare ecosystem with a clear and vital promise: to streamline document workflows and facilitate easier sharing of patient information. However, for many clinicians, EHR systems have fallen far short of this promise. Instead of alleviating burdens, they have become a leading cause of clinician stress and burnout, consuming valuable time that should be dedicated to interacting with patients. A 2019 JAMA survey highlighted this stark reality, finding that more than half of the issues associated with clinician stress and burnout stemmed directly from inefficient EHR systems.
The reasons for this systemic failure are multifaceted and deeply frustrating for clinicians:
• Tedious Data Entry: Beyond direct patient care, clinicians are burdened with extensive clerical tasks, including recording diagnoses, medication orders, visit notes, and basic administrative data. Inefficient EHRs compound this by adding as many as two additional hours in data entry for every hour of direct patient contact, often forcing clinicians to complete these tasks after-hours. Even system updates can lead to changes in data entry that increase the potential for mistakes, requiring extra vigilance.
• Poor Usability: The intuitive nature of EHR software directly impacts its efficiency. A poor EHR experience means clinicians struggle to both access and input crucial patient information. Complex interfaces require more clicks, more scrolls, and more time to navigate workflows, increasing the likelihood of errors. Such systems become an obstacle rather than an aid.
• Lack of Interoperability: Imagine the critical need for a primary care physician to coordinate with an oncologist on a patient’s cancer journey, only to find their clinical data housed in unconnected systems that cannot communicate with one another. Poor EHR interoperability severely hinders communication between different roles and practices, preventing the seamless pulling together of clinically relevant data. This lack of access to vital information—such as medications, prior treatments, and medical history—can jeopardize patient care.
Given the profound impact of EHRs on clinician well-being and patient care, it's clear that software solutions can be the key to simplifying the workday and combating burnout. The most effective EHRs are designed to maximize operations and reduce clinician burden by addressing the core inefficiencies that cause frustration.
An optimized EHR solution should embody three critical characteristics:
1. Made to Simplify EHR Workflows: Identifying and eliminating redundant or poorly designed tasks within the EHR is paramount. Organizations should actively seek input from clinicians regarding what hinders their workflows. For instance, the Hawaii Pacific Health’s “Get Rid of Stupid Stuff” program, which asked employees to assess their EHR and nominate unnecessary tasks in 2017, resulted in saving 1,700 nursing hours per month across their health system. Taking such action can significantly free up time for clinicians to focus on patient care and foster better collaboration.
2. Designed with Clinicians in Mind: The ultimate goal is to implement an EHR that is truly built BY clinicians FOR clinicians. This clinician-driven design is essential to remove obstacles, alleviate frustrations, and facilitate better outcomes. Such a system directly addresses the issues of poor usability, communication overload, and inefficient workflows. Imagine clinicians being able to review real-time information on the move, including vitals and lab results, before appointments – this is not a dream, but a real possibility with the right EHR. It allows for improved care delivery and reduced clinician burnout.
3. Personalized to Your Needs: Clinicians often struggle with generic, "catch-all" software that doesn't adapt to their specific needs. A personalized EHR empowers them to tailor patient workflows, effectively removing unnecessary steps. The operational efficiency benefits are substantial, and introducing technology that doesn't require constant workarounds dramatically reduces clinician stress, encouraging adoption and satisfaction. EHR personalization can be tailored across a spectrum of needs, including:
◦ User roles
◦ Programs
◦ Patient types
◦ Regulatory requirements
The crucial advantage here is control: internal IT teams can roll out updates and new functionalities using low-code/no-code EHR personalization, saving valuable time and avoiding bottlenecks associated with waiting for big-box vendors.
In the face of an already vulnerable healthcare industry, where workers are bending under the dual pressure of managing data and patients, clinician burnout is driving them to their breaking point. Switching to an EHR solution designed to address these core issues can be a game changer, restoring calm and control to clinicians.
Juno Health's EHR software solution is specifically designed to mitigate common pain points for healthcare IT operations teams and improve care delivery for patient care providers. It's an EHR built BY clinicians FOR clinicians.
Juno EHR gives organizations the controls necessary to combat burnout effectively:
• Its Clinical Content Builder allows tailoring workflows with a convenient no-code/low-code design.
• Paired with Juno EHR’s Build-A-Module, it becomes even easier to make the EHR work for the organization's unique needs, complete with personalized modules, dynamic patient lists, and flexible patient views across departments and specialties.
• Juno EHR allows for more time spent at the bedside, directly reducing crushing workloads.
• The system is designed to support various healthcare settings, including Acute Care, Behavioral Health, Public Health, State Mental Health, and Critical Access Hospitals, offering clinical integration, turnkey convenience, and accelerated implementation.
• Juno Health also emphasizes strong partnerships, such as integrating with Multiview Financial Software to enhance financial management and collaborating with InteliChart to offer patient engagement capabilities.
• Furthermore, Juno Health prides itself on its U.S.-based customer support services that prioritize putting the patient first.
Beyond directly supporting frontline clinicians, optimized EHR solutions like Juno EHR also alleviate pressures on healthcare executives, helping to ease the minds of CEOs troubled by organizational complexities and burnout within their ranks.
By exploring the power of EHR personalization and implementing a system designed with the clinician experience at its heart, healthcare organizations can empower their teams, restore efficiency, and ultimately, safeguard the well-being of their most valuable asset: their dedicated clinicians. It's time for technology to improve, not impede, the physician experience and patient care, protecting providers from critical burnout and information overload.