Joy Himmel PsyD, LCPC, NCC, RN, FACHA is the director of counseling services at Old Dominion University. Dr. Himmel also has over thirty years of experience in providing healthcare services in a variety of practice settings. Dr. Himmel has been a surveyor for Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care since 2009 and was recently elected to be Chair-elect of the AAAHC Board of Directors. She also serves as part of the teaching faculty with AAAHC.
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Erik Sunset: [00:00:00] Hey folks. Thanks for listening to the DocBuddy journal. I’m your host, Erik. Unfortunately, during the recording of this episode, we had a technical snag that did not allow us to capture video either from myself or from our special guests. Dr. Joy Himmel. Don’t let that take away your enjoyment of the show.
It’s still a fantastic episode with Dr. Hemel. And with that. We’ll take it away. Thanks.
Erik Sunset: Hello and welcome back. I’m Erik Sunset, your host of the DocBuddy journal. Here at DocBuddy, we deliver healthcare solutions that take the pain and cost out of broken workflows like Op Note, which gives ASCs the power instantly generated operative reports. You can learn more about Op Note at docbuddy. com.
Erik Sunset: And today we’re joined by a special guest, Dr. Joy Himmel. Dr. Himmel is the Director of Counseling Services at Old Dominion University. She also has over 30 years of experience in providing healthcare services in a variety of practice settings. Dr. Himmel has been a surveyor for AAAHC since 2009 and was [00:01:00] recently elected to be Chair Elect of the AAAHC Board of Directors.
Erik Sunset: She also serves as part of the Teaching Faculty with AAAHC. Thanks so much for joining us
Dr. Joy Himmel: Oh, you’re welcome. It’s great to be here.
Dr. Joy Himmel: Sure.
Erik Sunset: is our pleasure to have you on the show. And I know before we hit record, we’re, we’re kind of joking around. Can’t believe that ASCA is about two weeks away. You’re speaking at the ASCA annual conference in Orlando, just a couple of weeks, promoting mental health and wellness for your staff and your ASC, which is a talk you’re doing Friday morning.
Erik Sunset: What can you tell us about your, um, your speaking engagement without giving too much away for anybody that would be attending in person?
Dr. Joy Himmel: Yes. I hope, uh, hope everyone attends. Um, I think it’s gonna be a great session. It’s gonna be a combination of just kind of learning, uh, what the data is showing out there related to workplace, [00:02:00] uh, wellness, and then give a lot of ideas related to how. ASCs can help in terms of really paying attention and focusing on staff wellness, wellness in the workplace, what they can do related to not only their practices, but protocols, um, policies that would really enable, um, staff to just feel like they matter and feel like they are valued within the organization.
Dr. Joy Himmel: Uh, we’re also going to be talking about, personally, what can you do in terms of taking control of your own health and your own mental health? Uh, what you can do to help, uh, reduce stress in your life. Everybody has stress. Um, it’s a matter of how you handle it and what you do to monitor it and manage it.
Dr. Joy Himmel: And so we’ll be doing a lot of work there related to what are some ideas that might help you as an individual [00:03:00] deal with stress, uh, stress in the workplace, but also stress in general. And then just really describing the importance of self care overall and giving some suggestions for, you know, how do you take care of yourself?
Dr. Joy Himmel: Um, what does that look like? What are some ideas? What are some tips that tend to just help with centering, um, and allowing your body, your mind to relax and doing that in a way that, uh, really tries to just manage the daily stressors I think that everybody experiences from time to time. So I think it’s going to be a good session.
Dr. Joy Himmel: We’re going to end it with a mindful meditation. That’s going to be about a 10 minute exercise just to give everybody a little bit of a taste of what visual imagery and mindful meditation is all about and the benefits of that. Um, and then we’ll have hopefully some time at the end for, for questions and, and just some dialoguing.
Dr. Joy Himmel: So. I [00:04:00] think it’ll be a good session. Um, definitely a departure from the other sessions I think at ASCA, but certainly one that I think is extremely important.
Erik Sunset: Yeah, that doesn’t sound just like a good session. That sounds like a great session. And not to take us too far off track, but some of the recent clinical perspectives that have been on the show revolve around just that, which you just described around accountability to yourself. Uh, that if you as the patient are in search of a particular outcome, you know, there’s certainly a lot that your physician, that your providers, that your care team will do to help you achieve that.
Erik Sunset: But ultimately, you know, the responsibility falls to you. So I, I think that sounds great. And to end with a mindful, uh, Mindfulness meditation. That’s, uh, something that I’ve dabbled in that’ll, that’ll be a treat for those that haven’t yet had the opportunity to try that.
Dr. Joy Himmel: Absolutely. And I, I’ve done this in some other settings and you know, what I find is healthcare [00:05:00] providers are great at taking care of others, uh, and being very other oriented, but when it comes to, you know, really prioritizing their own. Uh, healthcare, uh, their own time that they are are allotting for relaxation, um, pleasure, et cetera.
Dr. Joy Himmel: They don’t take time for that. And so really being mindful of the fact that You know, you do have to take time for yourself. You do need to feed your own soul before you can give to others. So, uh, again, you know, just giving, I think the participants some experience with that and, you know, giving them a taste of, you know, what it’s like to be able to really just kind of quiet the mind, quiet the body and feel the benefits of that.
Erik Sunset: Yeah. Oh yeah. And right. Yeah. Again, not to drag us too far off topic, but the, both the physiologic benefits as well as the mental health benefits are astounding when you make that a part of your day.
Dr. Joy Himmel: Absolutely.[00:06:00]
Erik Sunset: So, Dr. Hemal, I’m not quite sure how recently you were, um. elected to be chair elect of AAA HC, but I want to wish you at least a, hopefully not too belated of a crap congratulations on that because that is very
Dr. Joy Himmel: Yeah. Thank you very much. Um, this year I’m serving as chair elect in November. I will take over the chair position and have that for a year. Um, it’s a great opportunity. I’m only the sixth female in Triple HC history to be chair of the board. Um, and I’m the only, uh, individual with a behavioral health background.
Dr. Joy Himmel: So there’s some real, um, Opportunities here and nuances that I think are unique. Um, I think Triple A C as an organization has really, um, expanded their horizon and scope in terms of really developing, um, the product, uh, in a way that I think is holistic, [00:07:00] um, Certainly behavioral health is one of the categories that’s consistent with our accreditation standards.
Dr. Joy Himmel: Um, and organizations that, um, have behavioral health, uh, certainly, um, that applies when they are looking for accreditation, but really having the chair of the board of directors as a behavioral health provider, I think just gives a lot of opportunity to the organization to look at things in different ways.
Dr. Joy Himmel: And really expand on some of the areas related to, um, not just physical health, but mental health as well.
Erik Sunset: cool. Yeah. And that’s, um, that that’s one of the things that I was able to see in one of, uh, your recent press releases that there’s, and this is an air quotes, a new emphasis on mental health and wellbeing. And I think that’s, uh, true in both senses of the words that it’s both new, but it’s also been there all along, because if you have people.
Erik Sunset: Going crazy, doing their job, you know, [00:08:00] that’s, uh, that doesn’t let them do their job for very much longer. So can you speak a little bit to what that means? How, how are you going to be emphasizing more on mental health and wellbeing?
Dr. Joy Himmel: Yeah, so one of the things that, um, for those of, uh, the audience that are accredited with Triple HC will notice in version 43, which is our, our updated accreditation standards, is that in the category of administration, now there is a standard related to workplace or wellness and really expecting organizations to have some attention given to workplace wellness in general.
Dr. Joy Himmel: Um, and, you know, as surveyors, we’ll be looking, um, at organizations in terms of what’s in place, um, how are you assessing workplace wellness, um, with that assessment data. Uh, what are you doing about the data [00:09:00] that you gather? Um, are you taking a pulse of, you know, what’s happening in the workplace related to, uh, your employees?
Dr. Joy Himmel: You know, is there satisfaction? You know, one of the things that we know is that, uh, based on some recent Um, there’s, you know, a, a lot of employees in the healthcare, uh, field that are just not satisfied with their workplace environment and they don’t feel supported. And, you know, one recent study, uh, related to the clinician, uh, Of the future global report that was reported in Forbes, um, indicated that 47 percent almost 50 percent of the US healthcare workers are planning to leave their place of employment within the next couple of years.
Dr. Joy Himmel: And so, you know, people are restless and I think now more than ever, you know, organizations need to, ASCs need to [00:10:00] pay attention to. Workplace wellness, you know, what’s going on in the workplace. How are they assessing that? How are they meeting the needs of their employees? Um, so vitally important, I think not just related to accreditation and complying with accreditation standards, but just being able to retain, recruit and retain employees.
Erik Sunset: Yeah. Some of those, some of those stats are shocking and, uh, you know, moving, moving one job to the other, that’s a very different conversation than a lot of the sentiment of burnout causing physicians and other providers to retire ahead of schedule, if you will, you know, earlier than expected, and there’s, Obviously a crunch of physicians that we’re starting to experience now.
Erik Sunset: Uh, but you kind of took the words out of my mouth, Dr. Himmel, that I would imagine for the center, it makes it a part of their culture, that employee mental health and wellbeing is important. And I don’t think we’re talking about that, you know, everybody needs to have a smile on their face, [00:11:00] this needs to feel like Disney World, and you need to feel like you’re visiting Disney World on the inside every day, every minute of the day.
Erik Sunset: That’s the other end, I would expect, as a non expert, that’s the other end of the spectrum that’s equally as unhealthy as being burned out or being run down. But if you, as the ASC, can implement a culture of, Hey, you know, there’s good days, there’s gonna be bad days. But we’re all here together, and here are the strategies that you individually can do, and then here are our center’s policies.
Erik Sunset: This is a really long walk for a short drink of water, Dr. Himmel. But having said all that, I would imagine if you’re, if you have that front of mind at the center, that does enhance your ability to retain staff, and eventually, and to extend that to being able to hire staff as well. Is that right?
Dr. Joy Himmel: Well, exactly. And I think, you know, uh, healthcare providers, just like any worker, wants to feel like they matter. They want to feel like they’re respected. They [00:12:00] want to feel that, um, their managers encourage self care, um, and that, you know, things like, you know, Taking time off are respected. Uh, you know, again, many of the survey data, much of the survey data that I’ve looked at, um, you know, employees aren’t feeling those things.
Dr. Joy Himmel: And if, if, um, You know, if leadership is not taking that into account, if they’re not looking at that, then they really, I think, are at risk at losing workers and having that high turnover rate. Um, we know that, uh, chronic workplace stress does lead to burnout. And, you know, what occurs with burnout is lower productivity, lower motivation, um, more irritability and complaints, um, are surfaced.
Dr. Joy Himmel: Um, people tend to call out sick a whole lot more, um, and you know, the picture doesn’t look very bright. [00:13:00] And so you really do need to, I think, look at what kind of stressors can be managed within the workplace. Um, you know, I think many times we work in environments that Just because of the nature of it, and ASCs are a good example of that, there is some high stress.
Dr. Joy Himmel: You know, there are high expectations, and um, there is a high workload. Um, the problem, I think, is when employees do not feel connected and supported. Uh, that’s when that workload becomes less tolerable. And so, even in our high Um, if there’s a sense of support, camaraderie, um, if there’s a mutual respect and a feeling that employees have some say in decision making, it goes a long way to reducing that perceived stress level, and it makes it [00:14:00] more tolerable.
Dr. Joy Himmel: So, you know, these are just some of the things that I think are extremely important in terms of really preventing. that thing that we call burnout.
Erik Sunset: Sure. And it sounds to me, and again, as a layperson, To make the stresses of the job more tolerable, not to wave a magic wand and eliminate them though. I know we all would, if we could, but that’s not how reality, you know, is woven together.
Dr. Joy Himmel: Right.
Erik Sunset: What, what are some of the major keys that you would share with the ASC world that, you know, you can’t wave that magic wand, but to make stress more tolerable on your staff or on yourself.
Erik Sunset: Here’s, here’s what I recommend
Dr. Joy Himmel: Yeah. I think creating a atmosphere where, you know, employees, clinicians, providers, um, have a path, uh, related to communicating, giving feedback, uh, and getting support. [00:15:00] So, you know, if that’s making, Uh, wellness, mental health, much more of a priority, more of a focus, a part of staff meetings. Um, just really being open to, you know, decreasing the stigma around it, you know, so many times what I hear is healthcare providers recognize that they’re having some mental health symptomatology, but they don’t You know, it’s either stigma or they feel like they don’t have the time or they, they often feel like, well, it’s not that bad.
Dr. Joy Himmel: Um, so, you know, really encouraging providers, employees to take the steps necessary to take care of their own health, encourage that, support that. Um, you know, and reducing stigma by talking about it, you know, is again, I think so important. I think other things that can be done is doing trainings with your [00:16:00] supervisors, with, uh, your leadership, so that.
Dr. Joy Himmel: What is being provided is a much more supportive type of supervision. You know, so many times people are thrown into leadership positions, you know, be it nursing management or management within the ASC, but they haven’t been provided any kind of training on how to really lead. in a compassionate way or how to provide supervision in a way that is supportive.
Dr. Joy Himmel: So providing that kind of training to supervisors, to leadership, I think, you know, just goes a long way. Um, and then, you know, uh, talking about resources. So many organizations have Um, EAP programs, uh, employee assistance programs that are historically very underutilized. So you know, if you do have a pro, program like that, really talking about it a [00:17:00] lot.
Dr. Joy Himmel: You know, I think many times when the surveys are done and the questions are asked, did you know that there’s an EAP? Have you used it? Many times the answer is no, you know, I didn’t know it was there or no, I didn’t use it because I didn’t know if it was confidential or there’s other things, but, you know, typically they are completely confidential. Typically, participants can have anywhere from three to four free sessions, and then they’re referred, if, if need be, to a provider, um, that, uh, takes their insurance, you know, so there’s, there’s that bridging, uh, but really utilizing the resources that are available, not just with EAPs, but, you know, having a running list of mental health resources in the community.
Dr. Joy Himmel: Um, is extremely helpful. Just so you know, employees, clinicians know that this is supported. Um, and this is something that is fostered within the organization. Again, reducing [00:18:00] that stigma of mental health.
Erik Sunset: when you. When you look, Dr. Himmel, at the balance that an ASC has to strike where, you know, they are scratching and clawing out of the same barrel of employees at the hospital that’s maybe in the same parking lot, you know, a stone’s throw from their center are looking to hire and, um, increase their headcount with.
Erik Sunset: If you’re at the surgery center, are all the strategies and the cultures that you, um, just described, getting those into place, being sure your employees are aware of them, does that sort of help you combat, do you think, and maybe that’s not the right word, but remain a competitive employer compared to the hospital, which as a rule will just be able to pay more for the same or similar type role.
Erik Sunset: So I guess a better way to ask that is. Did you have that really strong culture at your center via the strategies that you described? Does that make hiring and [00:19:00] retaining staff easier as compared to a hospital where maybe you’re a little bit more of a cog in a machine?
Dr. Joy Himmel: Yeah, I definitely think so. And I, I think as ASCs really build upon this, you know, it’s a marketing approach, um, because you can much more easily recruit clinicians, employees, um, if the work environment is, um, Conducive to providing support. Um, if supervision is provided in a kind and compassionate manner.
Dr. Joy Himmel: Um, if they, uh, feel respected. Uh, if they feel like they matter. Um. If there’s connectedness between coworkers, and that’s one of the most important things, you know, people stay at jobs because they like who they’re working with, you know, and so really fostering those relationships, building those relationships, you know, maybe doing things after [00:20:00] work together as a team, you know, really kind of fostering that team building is so important because people will stay at a job, even if it’s stressful.
Dr. Joy Himmel: We’ll stay at a job if they feel like they are valued, uh, if they feel like they’re respected and they feel that they really connect with the people that they’re working with. So fostering that environment, I think of care, the culture of care and connection is definitely the key. And that will, I think, put An organization above another, because, you know, based on the data that’s being collected, especially in the last few years.
Dr. Joy Himmel: Um, that’s what the workforce wants. They want that connection. They want to feel valued. Um, and that’s the, the most important thing. I think when, you know, you’re really looking at a position, you’re working, you’re looking at a workplace, you know, is that in place.
Erik Sunset: [00:21:00] Yeah. And as you say, the, the workforce itself is, uh, it’s really ready to have that mental health, mental health, excuse me, is a priority now. Like it’s never been in the past. So as, as individuals, obviously I’m very interested in my, my own mental health. Um, as businesses though, there’s maybe if you’re not looking at it the right way and not doing it to take better care of your employees because you care about them as people, but you’re just looking at line item management, right?
Erik Sunset: Which I know was not the folks that are listening to this show. They’re not folks that are going to be listening to you at ASCA or that are at the event. There’s sort of a cynical side to this where, you know, if I just have happier employees, I have to hire less of them less often. Right? So this is a really ugly setup, Dr.
Erik Sunset: Himmel, that mental health being more priority now than ever. Is it because everybody is just ready to, to not work themselves to the bone and grind themselves down to a nub, or is it just that it’s better business practice? [00:22:00] We have better employees and that’s the only reason we’re interested in it at this time.
Erik Sunset: Sure.
Dr. Joy Himmel: you know, I think there’s multi levels here. Um, you know, so definitely I think if you have a happy worker, you’re, you’re going to have a more productive worker. Um, your organization is going to work better together and you’re going to get better outcomes and results. So, you know, I think that’s a given.
Dr. Joy Himmel: I think we, you know, have, um, Uh, work environment now, um, that there’s an expectation, I think, with employees that, um, work life balance is going to be taken, uh, into consideration, you know, and, and, you know, we went through that period of, uh, COVID, I hate to bring up COVID, but COVID where, you know, there was a lot of changes in the workforce, um, a lot of changes within organizations, um, [00:23:00] a lot of organizations had to figure out how to do things differently.
Dr. Joy Himmel: I think one of the things that came out of that was an expectation. Uh, overall, and this is a broad generalization, but an expectation that, you know, a workplace needs to be, more cognizant of things like work life balance, mental health, wellness, uh, stress reduction, um, than maybe previously. And I think that’s a move in the right direction.
Dr. Joy Himmel: I think that’s certainly important. Um, so, you know, I, I, I, Uh, really think that probably that’s maybe one of the benefits of of one of the outcomes from, um, the whole pandemic is that, you know, we have different expectations of what’s important and what matters and, um, maybe a little bit more picky, you know, employees have been related to, you know, You know, what are they going to be doing, you know, for eight [00:24:00] hours a day or ten hours a day?
Dr. Joy Himmel: Um, and is it going to fit into their life plan and are they going to be able to maintain work life balance the way they need to?
Erik Sunset: I couldn’t agree more. And one point I’m very curious in your perspective on is that, that change in workforce sentiment around expectations, like you said, you know, what are they going to be doing eight, 10 hours a day to build on what we’ve said before, who are they going to be doing it with? And do they like these people or can they at least tolerate them?
Erik Sunset: Is this a shift in mentality based on an age bracket? You know, are, are older workers or younger workers feeling more or less this way? Or do you see it just across the board and it’s the same rate of sentiment change for all ages?
Dr. Joy Himmel: Yeah, you know, I think it’s across the board, but I do see it, I think, in the younger generation a bit more, um, but I really do think it’s across the board. I think that, you know, [00:25:00] that period there in 2020, 2021 really allowed people to be very self reflective in terms of what they want for themselves. Um, and I think they were able to, um, Again, kind of just take stock of, you know, where they are in their life, uh, where they are in their life plan related to vocation, but, you know, in a general sense as well and what they need to do either the same or differently going forward.
Dr. Joy Himmel: And I think a lot of. Um, of individuals figured out that, you know, they need to be more assertive in terms of, um, just what they want for themselves related to not just work and vocation, but in a general sense as well, family and other things. And so I think for a lot of individuals, they were able to put some things into perspective, um, and kind of resurfaced from that timeframe, [00:26:00] um, with some new.
Dr. Joy Himmel: Insights, um, related to themselves, what they want for themselves, others in the world around them.
Erik Sunset: What if you, if you can go back in time, obviously pre COVID, and I guess that would have been March 2020. I think that that was sort of when, uh, We started to shut things down here in the U S but if you go, if you go back prior to that March, 2020 timeframe, obviously the canary in the coal mine wasn’t, wasn’t in great shape going from January to March, 2020.
Erik Sunset: Um, but you know, sort of the status quo prior to COVID, you know, at least to me, it didn’t seem that employers were all that interested in feeling about or hearing about how their employees felt. about the workplace. Obviously, you know, compassion is on a scale or willingness to listen is on a scale. But that’s a that’s a pretty marked change, is it not?[00:27:00]
Dr. Joy Himmel: Yeah, I’d say it is a change. And again, I see this as a change for the better. Um, and, you know, a great opportunity, I think, for organizations to look at what are the strengths, what are the areas for, uh, improvement, what are the gaps. Thanks. You know, and what are the opportunities, uh, for change. And so it is a change, you know, and again, I think that timeframe, um, everything kind of came to a halt, you know, and I think as, as, uh, people were putting on the brakes, organizations were put on the brakes.
Dr. Joy Himmel: It just gave that pause to really look at things with maybe some new eyes. And I’m, you know, just so pleased that, uh, mental health wellness has moved up in terms of priority, where I think it should have always been. So, you know, if, if the pandemic did us any favors, to me, [00:28:00] that’s one, that it, um, really kind of push the envelope a little bit in terms of what’s important and what is important is our, is our wellness.
Dr. Joy Himmel: What is important is our mental health. Um, certainly physical health as well, but you know, if you don’t have these things in place and if you aren’t prioritizing and focusing on these things, everything else kind of crumbles. And I think there was You know, an astute evaluation of that through that period, which now I think is, is, you know, trying to take it’s a fair course, which I think again is, is a real benefit for, for our society and for organizations and, um, for all of us.
Erik Sunset: You got to take every advantage you can get to get better, uh, for lack of a better term, even if that opportunity is spit out from the backside of a pandemic.
Dr. Joy Himmel: Exactly.
Erik Sunset: So you referenced change there a couple of times, and you’re [00:29:00] absolutely right, COVID did provide a lot of opportunities for change. One thing that’s changing really quickly in healthcare, though, is its willingness to at least evaluate, in healthcare as a whole, its willingness to at least evaluate artificial intelligence solutions, or so called artificial intelligence solutions.
Erik Sunset: What are you seeing in your world, Dr. Himmel, with regard to AI in healthcare?
Dr. Joy Himmel: Yeah, you know, I think the possibilities are, um, just astounding related to AI, and I think we’ve barely scratched the surface of, um, How we’re going to be using AI in the future. Um, but you know, AI driven tools related to not only diagnosis, but analysis of data, I think is so useful in the healthcare arena, uh, really looking at AI to help [00:30:00] us with, um.
Dr. Joy Himmel: Looking at patterns, you know, as, as in our human capacity, we pale in comparison to what AI can do related to the vast amount of data that it can look at, analyze, look at patterns, um, look at precursors, look at risk factors, which is going to be so important and is important related to surgical centers looking at risk.
Dr. Joy Himmel: Looking at post op risk, pre op risk, um, mining that data in a way that only AI can do. And then consolidating that data into something that is usable in terms of just looking at outcomes. Um. I, you know, I think it has immeasurable opportunities related to quality improvement, um, quality improvement metrics.
Dr. Joy Himmel: Um, I know it’s, you know, being used a lot right now in [00:31:00] diagnostic specialties, um, really looking at, you know, areas related to how can it be helpful in the area of pathology, radiology, you know, and so. What’s exciting to me about it is that, you know, it’s a new frontier and I think we’re going to be, you know, using it in so many different ways that we don’t even realize at this moment because, as I said, I think we’ve just really scratched the surface related to its usefulness.
Erik Sunset: I would tend to agree with you. We are, we’re obviously very early stage in what AI can do. There’s a lot of really great potential use cases, which you, you did a good job of laying out a really good job of laying out, there’s also some sort of. Pie in the sky, maybe yes, maybe someday, you know, maybe in a hundred years you could look at something like an LLM replacing a physician.
Erik Sunset: Uh, I don’t [00:32:00] that that will happen anytime soon. I certainly won’t be alive to see it. Um, but it is really neat to see healthcare run towards AI with open arms where generally it’s, uh, you know, a little, reticence look at new technology, sometimes even any techno.
Dr. Joy Himmel: Exactly. Yeah. And you know, anything can be used or misused. And certainly there’s some risk related to AI, um, that can be misused. But, you know, I, I think I’m seeing, you know, a whole lot more use related to chatbots and, you know, use on websites and, you know, um, Just the, the collation of information that is being collected, uh, analyzed and then summarized.
Dr. Joy Himmel: It’s just really an amazing resource.
Erik Sunset: Yeah, not, you know, this is a little bit out of my realm of expertise. I certainly talk about it a whole lot. Um, we’d love your thoughts on this though. The data [00:33:00] shows and essentially every, every reputable survey, you can see whether it’s from class research or anything that Medscape has published. But that like the number one driver of physician burnout, just physician burnout, not necessarily anybody in health care’s burnout, but it’s around technology being forced to use bad technology, which is a paraphrasing of how the surveys are structured, but that’s essentially what it boils down to.
Erik Sunset: I think what you just hit on though, that around chatbots, being able to respond to maybe routine patient portal messages. Excuse me, messages, and that’s not to say click a button, click send, and then forget it ever happened. There obviously needs to be some level of review, but if you can take away that administrative burden that physicians across the country and even into Britain and Canada, we’ve talked to them on this show as well, that is what drives them absolutely crazy.[00:34:00]
Erik Sunset: So anything that can be done to reduce their administrative load seems like a good thing to me, whether it’s a chat bot, whether it’s chat GPT or anything in between. Are you, are you seeing any early results, um, around that function, Dr. Himmel?
Dr. Joy Himmel: Uh, yeah, I am. Um, and again, you know, there’s, we, we’re so in the early phases of this, um, I have, I have clinicians who are using, um, an AI platform to generate documentation. And so, you know, it’s a huge time saver, um, for AI to be used within a clinical setting. Um, Compose a clinical note. Um, and you know, the clinician reviews it.
Dr. Joy Himmel: Sure. But the time saving is really essential. Um, chat bots are being used also to provide information. Um, again, there’s, there’s a lot of, um, [00:35:00] Capability here related to just reducing the, um, the time element that we have to, uh, really spend on things that could be more automated. And. Certainly AI is one of those areas where we can look at automation and look at it in a way that really is very customizable, um, involving AI and chat bots to really decrease the The, the time it takes for us to do our jobs, because things like documentation, you know, certainly is time consuming.
Dr. Joy Himmel: And if we can have some assistance with that and have AI generate much of that documentation, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s clearly a time saver and efficient.
Erik Sunset: And look at you at the very early end of the, uh, the bell curve for adoption there, Dr. Himmel. That’s great. Glad to hear you got a little lightning in a bottle.[00:36:00]
Dr. Joy Himmel: Absolutely. Yeah. It’s, it’s really been fun to work with.
Erik Sunset: And speaking of that lightning in a bottle, um, if there was one thing that you could say from the mountaintops that every ASC across the land would hear and would know that you said it, what do you think you’d tell them?
Dr. Joy Himmel: Well, I think I would say in the light of wellness and in the light of our discussion today, I think the important thing is, you know, now more than ever, is the time to take a look at the work environment. Do some assessment of the work environment, either formalized or just anecdotally, anecdotally getting, getting people together, um, and then determining what you can do, um, to make your workplace either less stressful, more cohesive, um, more supportive.
Dr. Joy Himmel: Um, now is the time to take [00:37:00] a look at that because we are, I think, in a era here of. Really needing to compete with other organizations related to our workforce, um, and really trying to make sure that our workforce, um, is retained because it’s so expensive and time consuming to keep hiring new people all the time, you know, so we do want to retain our workforce.
Dr. Joy Himmel: We want to value our workforce and really just taking a moment, taking a pause. To take a look, take a pulse of things, figure out what you need to put in place, getting everybody on board with that, being very collaborative in that process and making a difference.
Erik Sunset: Uh, that’s really well said. Well, in between now and your, your speaking engagement at ASCA in Orlando, which will be in mid April, promoting mental health and wellness for your staff and your ASC, Where will people be able to connect with you?[00:38:00]
Dr. Joy Himmel: Yeah, they can find me on LinkedIn, um, and certainly connect with me on that platform. So that would probably be the best way to, uh, connect with me.
Erik Sunset: That sounds great. And we’ll be happy to get a link to your profile in the show notes, along with every other link that we discussed, including, uh, being able to register with ASCA for the annual conference. There is still time. And Dr. Hym. Well, thank you so much for your time to join us. This has been a great chat.
Dr. Joy Himmel: Thank you very much. I was, uh, very pleased to be here and it was great talking to you and, uh, hopefully, um, the audience will, um, be, uh, appreciative of some of the things that we talked about and if you’re at ASCA, you know, please come to the session.
Erik Sunset: Absolutely, and on behalf of the entire DocBuddy team, I want to thank you for listening. Be sure you’re subscribed on Apple Podcast, Spotify and YouTube so you can always hear or watch the newest episodes of the DocBuddy journal. Until next time, I’m your host, [00:39:00] Erik. We will talk to you soon.