Preventing Radiologist Burnout Is a Practice Responsibility

Ask yourself: what is your current practice doing to alleviate burnout? Are they investing in programs that support your professional and personal life?

I’ve read more radiologist burnout articles than I can count. Each is generally the same, concluding that burnout is a major problem, followed by a few ideas of what radiologists can do to help themselves.

This is not one of those articles.

This is an article about what radiology practices should be doing.

Ten years ago, as a partner in a successful private practice, I hoped to practice medicine only until my children were grown, and then I was going to quit radiology entirely. When I came to vRad in 2017, they didn’t have a wellness partner yet. I came to vRad for the other burnout-fighting benefits, including working from home, eliminating worklist pressure, and offloading nearly all admin tasks. At the time, it was enough. Today, my children are mostly adults, and I love practicing teleradiology at vRad. More importantly, I love my life. vRad and its wellness program are a huge part of that.

As an in-house physician advocate for vRad’s wellness program, (and full-time radiologist) I’m keenly and personally aware of how crushing burnout can be, and how pointless it is to expect radiologists to somehow handle it alone. To truly move the needle, radiology practices must step up and implement effective, easily accessible support for their physicians.

Independent and confidential services

About three years ago, vRad took up the challenge of doing more for their radiologists and partnered with an expert in the field of healthcare-professional wellness and support, VITAL WorkLife. Together they designed a broad offering of services, specifically tailored for the needs of teleradiologists.

What’s crucial here is that they are a partner with vRad, but fully independent.

I think we’ve all heard horror stories about professionals in various industries trusting an employer-provided counselor, only to have details get back to the management. You can’t have trust without both confidentiality and independence. No matter what program your practice offers, those are foundational standards. The top question our radiologists ask is, are they really confidential?

Yes!

Confidentiality is a fundamental aspect of VITAL WorkLife. Any information you share—with any coach, counselor, concierge, ANYTHING—will remain private. This is limited only by professional healthcare guidelines regarding risk of harm to self or others.

I can tell you, as someone who has access to the back end, all that vRad can see is the number of radiologists utilizing the services. And we’re extremely sensitive about disclosing even that info, which is why I’ll simply say that the utilization rate is high and growing.

Our radiologists’ favorites

I have my own personal favorites, but based on anonymous radiologist feedback and utilization numbers, here are the six most popular and frequently used resources in our program. They’re also the ones I think you should expect from a radiology practice’s wellness offerings.

1.  Concierge

Yes, our wellness program has a concierge service, and it came out on top! This is all about the nuts and bolts of life that can pile up into veritable mountains. Personal event management, trip planning, and appointment scheduling are just a few examples of tasks that are usually manageable on their own … but can grow overwhelming when added to the to-do list of a busy radiologist who’s already juggling and multitasking.

Through the concierge service, radiologists can request almost any kind of assistance. The concierge will research, coordinate, and take care of the details. It’s truly incredible. Some of our favorites are:

• Event tickets
• Travel services
• Errand running
• Gift ideas
• Car repairs
• And more!

 Consider this real-life—my life—example! For our anniversary last year, I wanted to go all out with an extravagant evening for myself and my wife. But working nights can make those sorts of arrangements incredibly challenging. Using the concierge services, I was able to have a private chef come to our home and create a beautiful meal and atmosphere that we could simply enjoy without any worries about logistics, time, or payment. It was way better than anything I could have done on my own. 

2.  Counseling

One of my favorite things about these counselors is that they’re specifically trained to work with medical professionals, which means it’s easier to talk about our career challenges. But—and this is so important—because they are in no way affiliated with the vRad, everything our radiologists say is confidential, and anything the counselors say is free of practice bias. That means our radiologists can speak candidly about their work without fear.

Just as important, all of the counselors and therapists are fully licensed, with master’s or doctoral degrees, including both psychologists and social workers, with specialized training to work with healthcare professionals. The most common reasons for counseling cited by our radiologists are divorce, depression, anxiety, and burnout, among others.

3.  Peer coaching

I love the peer coaching. There’s something about talking to a fellow physician, outside of your practice, who genuinely understands the highs and lows of our career, rather than nodding and pretending to understand. Additionally, because they have no connection to my workplace, and operate under VITAL WorkLife’s confidentiality standard, I know I can say anything and be confident my comments will never be shared.

Their coaches are an ideal match for radiologists because 75% of them are true peer coaches; meaning they’re all physicians—some retired, some still practicing—with additional training and certifications. (The others specialize in areas like executive peer counseling.) The key concept here, is that they get it.

4.  In-the-moment support

This can be a lot of things. Counseling, coaching, just a peer’s willing ear. The point is that these services are available for our radiologists, when they need them. Sometimes a crisis is big enough that it can’t wait until next Wednesday at 4:00pm. While I absolutely can’t see which radiologists are utilizing in-the-moment support, I’m grateful it was there for the radiologists who did need it. And enough did that it landed in our top six.

5.  Family counseling … for the whole family

This one’s kind of a two-parter. First, one of the incredible aspects of vRad’s wellness program is that it’s available to your family too. Everything you see here—the whole list. This has been described as a huge benefit by our radiologists.

Plus, remember the very first point about confidentiality? This applies to them too. In fact, I helped my family download the app on their phones, then I don’t actually know if, or how often, they use the services because it’s confidential even from me.

Second is more traditional family counseling and services. This kind of counseling is so crucial because, as I work with radiologists fighting burnout, what I’ve found is that often the core of the problem lies in struggles in their personal life and relationships. The aim of the vRad/VITAL WorkLife partnership is to nurture their radiologists’ entire life ecosystem. That includes their loved ones. From coping and strategic tools for parents to suggestions for fun local activities, there are a lot of resources aimed at families of all sorts and sizes. 

6.   Legal resources

Dr. Lee, this isn’t wellness. But it really can be. Significant life events—from buying or selling a house to estate planning to divorce and child custody questions—are stressful for anyone. And of course, we all practice with the threat of malpractice in the back of our minds. VITAL WorkLife can help to remove the burden of legal issues from our teleradiologists’ lives by setting them up with trustworthy lawyers. In addition, they can match radiologists to financial advisors who can offer input on budgeting, financial planning, retirement saving, and debt reduction.

Radiologists shouldn’t have to do it alone

The idea that it should be the practice’s responsibility to help radiologists manage outside stressors may require a major shift in mindset, but at vRad we’re doing our best to lead the way. Practices have a responsibility to assist their radiologists in staving off burnout and making the most of their careers.

 If you’re a radiologist who’d like to know more about vRad’s wellness program, or you’d like to talk to me directly, fill out this contact form and ask for me by name.