Chad Ritenour, MD, on efforts to promote physician well-being at Emory Urology

In this video, Chad W. M. Ritenour, MD, FACS, highlights the work being done by the Office of Well-Being at Emory Urology to mitigate burnout amongst physicians. Ritenour is the Chief Medical Officer at Emory University Hospital and a professor of urology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

Video Transcript:

We know that physician burnout has increased over the last few years, and burnout increases your risk of patient safety issues, of quality concerns, and people just not being able to focus or be at their best with work. About 3 years ago, we started talking of establishing the Office of Well-Being at Emory. I was really privileged to be 1 of 2 people who was tasked with that job. We now have a very large office that supports 35,000 people, including those in the department of urology.

One of the things we work on is how do we make the work easier? I like to say what takes 23 steps that should only take 3, and how do we get closer to those 3 steps? We have digital partners that have brought in ambient listening technologies for us to be able to see patients in clinics in a much more efficient way, for us not to have to do our notes late at night, every night after seeing patients, because the processes are better. How do we create the culture that prioritizes people taking care of themselves? How do we look at people that have children and the ability to have time off and still come back to work in a productive way? How do we create social communities that enable people to actually spend time together, to go out to dinner together, and actually get to know each other, so that we are better at taking care of the patients when we are in clinic and we are better in being able to push Emory to the next level. I think all of us are here because we want to make a difference, and one of the ways we make the most difference for our patients is we take care of the people who are taking care of them.

This transcript was AI generated and edited by human editors for clarity.