AMA STEPS Forward™ podcast

Explore some of the common workflow challenges private practice face and learn ways physicians can streamline processes to increase staff productivity.

Dr. Vanessa Calderón, board-certified emergency medicine physician, shares her approach to measuring physician well-being in an ER setting and provides tips on breaking through the “we've always done it this way” mentality. Learn more about Dr. Calderón here: https://www.vanessacalderonmd.com/

AMA team members and playbook co-authors Meghan Kwiatkowski, Program Manager, Physician Practice Sustainability and Taylor Johnson, Manager, Physician Practice Development discuss the latest AMA STEPS Forward® resource: The Private Practice Playbook.  Download the Private Practice Playbook to learn how to join, build, or sustain a private practice: https://bit.ly/PrivatePracticePlaybook 

Dr. Kevin Hopkins, Primary Care Medical Director at Cleveland Clinic and Senior Physician Advisor for Practice Transformation at the AMA, and Lindsey Carlasare, the AMA's Research and Policy Manager, discuss common regulatory myths and share tools for eliminating guesswork and other administrative burdens.  The AMA's Debunking Regulatory Myths series provides regulatory clarification to physicians and their care teams. To read more or submit a myth you want us to tackle next: bit.ly/DebunkingRegulatoryMyths 

Dr. Kirk Brower, a physician and Professor of Psychiatry and Chief Wellness Officer at the University of Michigan Medical School, discusses how his personal experience with burnout led to a career focus on burnout prevention and improved well-being for all physicians. Identify key contributors to physician burnout and the interventions available to address it with the AMA STEPS Forward® Physician Burnout toolkit: https://bit.ly/PhysicianBurnoutToolkit

Dr. Jeff Panzer, family physician and Vice President of Care Transformation, and Erica Deming, Care Team Coordinator at Heartland Health Centers in Chicago, discuss collaborative care team models and the impact this approach has on patient care. Learn more with the AMA STEPS Forward® Team-Based Care toolkit: https://bit.ly/Team-BasedCareToolkit

Dr. Melissa Reily and Dr. Melissa Wolf, Co-Directors of Physician Wellness at Bozeman Health, discuss how to reduce pajama time and work outside of work (WOW) at both the individual and organization-wide level so you can have “more great days.”    Learn more about the AMA Joy in MedicineTM Health System Recognition Program: https://bit.ly/3PF2CRt  and access the Getting Rid of Stupid Stuff toolkit: https://bit.ly/3vk5ds5

Dr. Kevin Hopkins, AMA Senior Physician Advisor and Primary Care Medical Director at Cleveland Clinic, shares how setting healthy boundaries can help physicians avoid heading down the road of fatigue, exhaustion, and ultimately burnout. To learn more, watch Dr. Hopkins' recorded webinar on this subject here: https://youtu.be/Q6K2G3yed_w. 

Dr. Alfred Atanda, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon and Director of Clinician Well-Being at Nemours Children's Hospital in Delaware, discusses his pilot project on minimizing unnecessary patient transfers using digital technology and how small interventions can lead to big changes in professional satisfaction and patient care. To learn more, access the AMA STEPS Forward “Getting Rid of Stupid Stuff” toolkit. (Toolkit link here: https://bit.ly/3O4mvQl)

Dr. Daniel Dunham, Chairman of Medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital, discusses how eliminating unnecessary clicks in the EHR ultimately decreases physician burnout and allows care teams to focus their time on what matters most—patient care. Learn more with the AMA STEPS Forward® Taming the EHR Playbook: https://bit.ly/STEPS-TamingEHR

Guest Kaiyti Duffy, MD, MPH, Chief Medical Officer at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, discusses how to create a safe and welcoming environment for LGBTQ+ patients—including sensitivity training for care team and staff, use of expansive and affirmative language, and respectful assessment and response to past medical trauma. Additional resources: https://bit.ly/3QAfklD

Dr. Kyle Christiason, Medical Director and Family Medicine Physician at UnityPoint Health, shares how his child coming out as transgender began a personal and professional journey that ultimately led to the founding of a clinic dedicated exclusively to LGBTQ+ health care in Cedar Falls, IA. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3xa0rgY and https://bit.ly/3Msgigg

Dr. Jillian Horton, Associate Chair of the Internal Medicine department at the University of Manitoba Max Rady College of Medicine and author of We Are All Perfectly Fine: A Memoir of Love, Medicine and Healing, explains the importance of physicians sharing their own burnout stories and why personal storytelling is a crucial step to improving culture and effecting systemic change. For resources on tackling physician burnout, please visit stepsforward.org.

COVID-19 is the most far-reaching public health emergency in generations, and its long-reaching effects have overwhelmed and overtaxed the health care community. Guest Dr. Reena Patel, an emergency medicine physician, shares her personal story about how the last two years treating patients amid staffing shortages and systemic issues amplified by the pandemic led to feelings of stress, frustration, and ultimately burnout. For resources on combating physician burnout, visit stepsforward.org.

As we gear up for May's Mental Health Awareness Month, Dr. Nigel Girgrah, Chief Wellness Officer at Ochsner Health System, discusses strategies for creating a culture of well-being at your health care organization – including addressing mental health stigma, building a strong EAP program, employing an opt out vs opt in approach, and encouraging leadership to be vulnerable about their own burnout struggles.

Dr. Rishi Manchanda, President and CEO of HealthBegins, walks listeners through the 5 steps health care leaders can take to start translating their commitment to racial and health equity into action. To learn more, check out the related AMA STEPS Forward™ toolkits here: https://bit.ly/RHE-STEPS-HS and https://bit.ly/RHE-STEPS

Dr. Kevin Hopkins, Primary Care Medical Director at Cleveland Clinic and Senior Physician Advisor at the AMA, discusses the current state of telemedicine and why it's important for practices and health systems to pivot from a “physician-does-it-all” mentality and embrace team-based care. To learn more, check out the related AMA STEPS Forward™ toolkit here: https://bit.ly/3aRDvbw

Tom Delbanco, MD, and Catherine DesRoches, DrPH, Co-Founder and Executive Director respectively of OpenNotes, discuss common concerns and best practices when sharing clinical notes with patients. Read the full toolkit on this topic to learn more: https://bitly.is/37AnIiT.

Johns Hopkins School of Medicine successfully created a 6-pronged approach to address resident and fellow burnout. Dr. Laura Ann Hanyok, Assistant Dean for Graduate Medical Education and Associate Professor of Medicine, walks podcast listeners through how and why. Read the full Success Story here: https://bit.ly/39pvutu

Dr. Marie Brown talks with guest Nigel Girgrah, MD, Chief Wellness Officer at Ochsner Health, about how “quick win” system adjustments such as implementing badge logins, synchronizing refills, and decreasing EHR clicks can improve practice efficiency and reduce physician frustration. To learn more, check out the related AMA STEPS Forward™ toolkit: https://bit.ly/3nqd5oh. (If link is not active, copy and paste the URL into the address bar of your web browser.)

Elisabeth Stambaugh, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, discusses how training medical assistants as “Encounter Specialists” can reduce physician burnout, close the value-based care gap, and increase team efficiency and satisfaction. To learn more, read the full Success Story here: https://edhub.ama-assn.org/steps-forward/module/2784471. (If link is not active, copy and paste the URL into the address bar of your web browser.)

Dr. Kerri Palamara, Director of the Center for Physician Well-Being at Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses with Dr. Jill Jin the important takeaways from her recent article "Four Key Questions Leaders Can Ask to Support Clinicians During the COVID-19 Pandemic Recovery Phase," co-authored with Dr. Christine Sinsky. Read the full Mayo Clinic Proceedings article here: https://mayocl.in/3nFWqwD

Host Dr. Jill Jin speaks with Angela Chaudhari, MD, a practicing obstetrician-gynecologist, about the Scholars of Wellness peer support pilot program she created for the OB-GYN department at Northwestern Medicine that was eventually implemented hospital-wide. To learn more, check out the AMA STEPS Forward™ Scholars of Wellness toolkit here: https://edhub.ama-assn.org/steps-forward/module/2782425. (If link is not active, copy and paste the URL into the address bar of your web browser.)

Host Dr. Jill Jin speaks with Dr. Philip Bain, a general internal medicine specialist at Bozeman Health Belgrade Clinic in Montana and the Physician Assistant Director for Primary Care at Bozeman Health, regarding strategies on streamlining workflow to ensure a thorough and efficient Annual Wellness Visit. To learn more on this subject, access the online AWV toolkit at https://bit.ly/3FoRBP7. (If link is not active, copy and paste the URL into the address bar of your web browser.)

Dr. Marie Brown, AMA Director of Practice Redesign, talks with Dr. Kavita Bhavan, Chief Innovation Officer at Parkland Health and Hospital System in Dallas, TX, about the importance of establishing community trust when addressing health disparities and how Parkland's targeted health equity work led to the establishment of Annie's Place, a free childcare center for children of patients. To learn more about Annie's Place, please visit https://www.mommiesinneed.org/anniesplace.

Marie Brown, MD, AMA Director of Practice Redesign, discusses Electronic Health Record (EHR) tips that can save you hundreds of hours. To learn more, check out the AMA STEPS Forward™ toolkit on EHR Optimization here: https://bit.ly/3nqd5oh. (If link is not clickable, copy and paste the URL into the address bar of your web browser.)

James Jerzak, MD, shares new models of team-based care for telemedicine based on recent institutional successes. To learn more on this topic, review the related toolkit here: https://bit.ly/3aRDvbw. (If the link is not clickable, please copy and paste the URL into the address bar of your web browser.)

Tait D. Shanafelt, MD, Chief Wellness Officer at Stanford Medicine, discusses how Chief Wellness Officers can develop a leadership strategy and implementation road map for professional well-being. To learn more on this topic, review the related toolkit here: https://bit.ly/3lWzMiZ (If the link is not clickable, try copying and pasting the URL into the address bar of your web browser.)

Interview with Tait D. Shanafelt, MD, Chief Wellness Officer at Stanford Medicine, on laying the organizational groundwork for professional well-being by creating and hiring a CWO. To learn more on this topic, review the related toolkit here : https://edhub.ama-assn.org/steps-forward/module/2767739 (If the link is not clickable, try copying and pasting the URL into the address bar of your web browser.)

Interview with James Jerzak, MD, and Christine Dzoga, BS, CMA (AAMA), on finding and keeping the right medical assistants for your team. To learn more on this topic, review the related toolkit here: https://bit.ly/MA-TK-STEPS (If the link is not clickable, try copying and pasting the URL into the address bar of your web browser.)

Interview with Richard J. Westphal, PhD, RN, FAAN, and Patricia Watson, PhD, on recognizing and responding early to stress injuries in health care professionals. To learn more on this topic, review the related toolkit at https://bit.ly/3yZBFAe. (If the link is not clickable, try copying and pasting the URL into the address bar of your web browser.)

Tait D. Shanafelt, MD, Chief Wellness Officer at Stanford Medicine, discusses measuring, assessing, and cultivating positive leader behaviors to improve professional well-being. To learn more on this topic, review the related toolkit here: https://edhub.ama-assn.org/steps-forward/module/2774089 (If the link is not clickable, try copying and pasting the URL into the address bar of your web browser.) Learn more about practice innovation strategies by visiting stepsforward.org.

Interview with Gaurava Agarwal, MD, on training physicians to advance well-being with effective pilot interventions at a system level. To learn more on this topic, review the related toolkit here: https://edhub.ama-assn.org/steps-forward/module/2782425 (If the link is not clickable, try copying and pasting the URL into the address bar of your web browser.) Learn more about practice innovation strategies by visiting stepsforward.org.

Interview with author Paul DeChant, MD, MBA, on improving physician–administrator relationships and enhancing engagement. To learn more on this topic, review the related toolkit here: https://edhub.ama-assn.org/steps-forward/module/2779767 (If the link is not clickable, try copying and pasting the URL into the address bar of your web browser.)  

Interview with Alexandra Ristow, MD, on what to look for in your first or next practice to maximize professional satisfaction, joy in medicine, and reduced risk of burnout. A little homework goes a long way. To learn more on this topic, review the related toolkit here: https://edhub.ama-assn.org/steps-forward/module/2767098. (If the link is not clickable, try copying and pasting the URL into the address bar of your web browser.)

Hear from physician expert Kevin D. Hopkins, MD, Medical Director at Cleveland Clinic, on how the advanced team-based care model yielded positive patient and practice outcomes. For a step-by-step guide on Team-Based Care, review the related toolkit here: https://edhub.ama-assn.org/steps-forward/module/2702513 (If the link is not clickable, try copying and pasting the URL into the address bar of your web browser.)

Interview with Tait D. Shanafelt, MD, Chief Wellness Officer at Stanford Medicine, on what you and your organization can do before, during, and after a crisis to increase the likelihood your workforce will cope and even thrive. For a deeper dive on caring for your workforce during a crisis, review the related toolkit here: https://edhub.ama-assn.org/steps-forward/module/2768609 (If link does not work, please copy and paste the URL into your browser.)

Subtitle: AMA's vice president of practice transformation, Christine Sinsky, MD, shares the origins of the AMA STEPS Forward™ program and how this program supports organizations, physicians, and their teams. Learn more about practice innovation strategies by visiting stepsforward.org.