Practice Management Alert

Keeping up morale in the office can be a job in and of itself.

No matter the size of your practice or the amount of your staff, someone on your team will experience feelings of apathy or burnout about their job.

How you, as a manager, navigate that reality will affect everything from team morale to patient experience to even your bottom line.

AAPC’s HEALTHCON Regional held a general session on Apathy and Burnout, led by Heather Greene, MBA, RHIA, CDIP, CPC, CDEO, CIC, CPMA, CRC, AAPC Approved Instructor, educational specialist at AAPC; Jaci Kipreos, CPC, CPMA, CDEO, CEMC, CRC, COC, AAPC Approved Instructor, director of provider audit Services at Coker Group; Marianne Durling, MHA, RHIA, CPC, CPCO, CIC, CDEI, CCS, CDIP, AAPC Approved Instructor, compliance director at Duke University Health System; and Rhonda Buckholtz, CPC, CDEO, CPMA, CRC, CENTC, CGSC, COBGC, COPC, CPEDC, AAPC Approved Instructor, chief compliance officer at Vision Innovation Partners; and moderated by Raemarie Jimenez, CPC, CDEO, CIC, CPB, CPMA, CPPM, CPC-I, CANPC, CRHC, chief product officer at AAPC.

Find out why and how to plan to meet apathy and burnout head-on.

Define the Conditions, Look for Signs

Employees experiencing apathy and burnout probably aren’t going to schedule a meeting with a supervisor to alert them to what’s going on.

Apathy and burnout have overlapping signs and symptoms, but the experiences are different.

Apathy can be characterized as a loss of interest or enthusiasm, and in the context of healthcare, a lack of concern about patients or outcomes. While not contagious in a technical sense, an apathetic team member can negatively impact team morale.

Burnout can manifest as complete exhaustion due to overwork; it’s more severe and can sometimes be traced to working conditions. Burnout has tangible effects on the suffering person’s health — which can ripple out across the practice.

“It’s important to determine how to recognize it faster and give that person a push in the right direction; but first you have to understand what it really means: Are you at the point you are starting to lose interest in the way you do the work or quality of care?” Kipreos said.

Knowing team members well is crucial to figuring out whether they’re dealing with apathy or burnout. “For example, I’m a talker, and when I stop caring, I get quiet. Watch for those signs and figure out the trigger and how to help solve it. Where do you get support? Finding the root cause is important,” Buckholtz said.

“It’s important as a leader to get ideas from employees on how to support them. Staffing is a challenge, but you have to do little things to support and celebrate folks. Small tokens like thank you notes, chocolates, etc., make a difference,” said MariaRita Genovese, MHA, CPC, who joined the session as an attendee.

Establish Boundaries for Remote Workers

Although most healthcare personnel work with patients face to face, their support staff sometimes hold remote positions. And remote workers in many industries face increasingly blurred boundaries because their worksite and home are one and the same. This blending of worlds can lead to more productivity for many people but more exhaustion as well — work is always accessible and thus maybe difficult to ignore.

“We have to set boundaries ourselves and hold the line. We often expect the boss to respect it, but we don’t hold the line ourselves,” Durling said.

From a management perspective, be careful you’re not overloading your “good workers” by giving them more and more work, even if it seems like they can handle the volume. If you’re an employee, there are ways to mitigate this phenomenon.

“There are strategies you can take when you keep getting work because you’re a good worker. If you’re the person taking all the work, stop taking it. Say, ‘I’m happy to train someone else to do this. I can’t do any more.’ You’re still contributing, but not taking it on yourself,” Buckholtz said.

“Know your limits and be willing to stand up for yourself. That’s not weakness. I think it is actually a stronger person who can stand up and say they can’t do something at that time,” Durling said.

Anticipate Apathy, Burnout and Explore Solutions

When hiring candidates, you can incorporate screening for potential apathy and burnout via personality assessments. But you can never predict what work environment — or circumstances in an employee’s life outside the practice — might contribute or cause apathy or burnout.

For example, a new parent might be totally sleep deprived and still showing up for work every day, expending more effort than ever before, though their productivity might lag by some measures. Compassion toward an employee in such a phase of life — and the knowledge that it is, indeed, a phase — can go a long way toward employee loyalty and a redoubled effort to dive back in once things at home calm down.

Management should have systems in place to help folks navigate their workload if it ever feels overwhelming. An easy starting point might be prioritizing.

“Sometimes managers don’t know the priorities either, but you asking them makes them think about it,” Durling said.