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Physician Work Environment and Well-Being
June 2018

Creating a “Manageable Cockpit” for Clinicians: A Shared Responsibility

Author Affiliations
  • 1Professional Satisfaction and Practice Sustainability, American Medical Association, Chicago, Illinois
  • 2Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York
JAMA Intern Med. 2018;178(6):741-742. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.0575

For many clinicians, the work of health care has become undoable. The “cockpit” where physicians and other health professionals work now consists of a cacophony of warning alerts, pop-up messages, mandatory tick boxes, a Sisyphean inbox, and maddening documentation. Paradoxically, many interventions intended to improve quality, safety, or value, when taken in totality, may in fact contribute to health system dysfunction by virtue of the cumulative impact on workload and consequent burnout. Although technology was meant to help, it has instead brought a wealth of new opportunities for administrative oversight and compliance monitoring.

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