The news has been unbelievably stressful these last three years: the COVID-19 pandemic, the murder of George Floyd, recent Supreme Court rulings related to health, mass shootings, wars, natural disasters. These and other stressors may well be affecting the well-being of hospital workforces—which is why the wellness and resilience of staff must be a core responsibility of hospital leadership, according to Jeremy Segall, assistant vice president and system chief wellness officer at NYC Health + Hospitals.
Mr. Segall, who is the chief wellness officer of the largest public hospital network in the U.S., discussed the connections between staff wellness and the quality of patient care at an April 25 webinar sponsored by United Hospital Fund’s Quality Leaders Forum (QLF). He told attendees that the many recent stressors have contributed to rampant staffing shortages. One in five health care workers have left the field since the start of the pandemic, leaving many of the remaining health care workers burned out and pushed to the brink.
“Where are the cracks? Currently one out of two health care workers say they do not feel valued by their organizations,” he said. “They are forgetting why they like the work that they do, and the heartbeat of why we’ve chosen health care is on the line as a result.”
Mr. Segall said workplace wellness must be made a core leadership responsibility, or hospital reputations, quality ratings and eventually, financial stability, will suffer. “The most important thing hospital management can do right now is to prioritize the psychological and sociological safety of staff.”
He stressed the importance of integrating well-being programs into the daily work and operations of a health system and recommended using quality improvement methods and tools to survey and measure the well-being of both individual employees and teams. Yearly surveys and short, efficient “just-in-time" assessments would be valuable for engaging staff and demonstrating that well-being is a priority.
Time should be allotted during the daily routine to allow team members to discuss the stresses they are facing without fear of judgement. “Encourage your team to speak up,” he said. “They will feel empowered, and valued, and more willing to stay.”
“We cannot have quality and performance improvement without the well-being of staff,” he cautioned. “When people are proud of where they work, patient care becomes a passion.”
UHF’s QLF network includes graduates and faculty from the UHF/Greater New York Hospital Association Clinical Quality Fellowship Program and honorees from the UHF Tribute to Excellence in Health Care, representing over 30 health care organizations. Members are invited to network and discuss current issues in health care quality with nationally recognized quality leaders and to pursue opportunities for sharing best practices.
Past Forum summaries can be found here. The next Forum will be held July 10 and the speaker will be John Halamka, MD, president of Mayo Clinic Platform.
UHF is grateful to Elaine and David Gould, whose generosity supports the Quality Leaders Forum.