The HIMSS Clinician Burden Reduction Task Force Toolkit
By Task Force Chair: Barry Newman, MD, MBA; Subgroup leaders: Craig Joseph, MD, FAAP, FAMIA; Danny Lee, MD, FACP; Robert Steele, RN, BSN, CPC, SHIMSS; Gwynne Jelbaoui, and a team of Task Force members
The HIMSS Clinician Burden Reduction Task Force was launched in 2023 to bring together HIMSS members experienced in reducing clinician burden and creating and publishing resources to support clinicians on the frontline of patient care. The task force encourages administrators and similar leadership to bring the toolkit to their organizations for that purpose.
Some of the objectives of the task force are:
- Provide resources like articles, plans, and/or webinars.
- Develop and publish joint resources in collaboration with the HIMSS Physician Community, HIMSS Nurse Informatics Community members, and any HIMSS member interested in collaborating.
- Work directly with the National Burden Reduction Collaborative via a task force representative.
This toolkit is a result of the work produced by the task force, which consists of physicians, nurses, and business leaders. The content is meant to be a framework that the user may customize for their facility's needs. The components of the toolkit can be used separately or collectively.
Your organization may need to identify where the significant sources of burnout are clearly. This toolkit provides a survey for physicians and nurses to help pinpoint areas of focus for your organization. Perhaps you already know that you would like to work on data automation or inbox management; this toolkit provides you with two plans. Documentation is a key area of burden for many physicians; this toolkit provided you with samples of streamlined notes will save physicians a significant amount of time. Each piece will provide insight into methodologies you can deploy at your organization to start to reduce areas of burden; a general business plan is also included to help establish these plans as seamlessly as possible.
The HIMSS Burden Reduction Task Force has created six pieces of content.
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A general business plan
Leverage this guide to assist in the implementation of any of these resources.
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A burden identifier survey for physicians and nurses.
These surveys can be used at your organization to clarify some of the setbacks related to burnout and identify information about the causes and contributors of burnout.
Supplemental resource
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An action plan for data automation implementation.
Unleash your institution's data ecosystem by adopting our guide, which is enriched with NLP insights and data collection standards. Elevate your strategies with our roadmap to optimize outcomes through training, analytics proficiency, and seamless data interoperability.
Explore these supplementary blogs and webinars.
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Inbox workflow improvement plan
This plan outlines five simple yet impactful changes to enhance team physician inbox management. It provides valuable insights on training, scope, budget, and risk management to facilitate a seamless implementation, ultimately improving efficiency and reducing physician burnout.
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Streamlined note samples
The goal of these samples is to reiterate the new guidelines from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the American Medical Association (AMA) updated Evaluation and Management (E&M) documentation guides released in August 2023, which eliminate many of the formerly required data for billing. These samples can be customized, used, and modeled in almost any care setting.
Supplemental resource
The HIMSS Market Insights team also have published some revealing data on strategies to help manage and reduce clinical stress.
Featured Resources
Special thank you to: Lisa Masson, MD, MBA; Valencia Payne, RN, BSN, MS; Scott Smitherman, MD, MBA; David L Scher, MD; Maggie Pena MBA; Anna Schoenbaum DNP, MS, RN, NI-BC.
Any inquiries should be directed to informatics@himss.org.