Physician Burnout: Fix the Foundational Elements First

Physician Burnout: Fix the Foundational Elements First

By Ryan Oliver, SVP of Healthcare Solutions at Goliath Technologies

Efforts to reduce physician burnout and increase productivity remain a top priority for health systems. In this blog, we will explore the high cost of physician burnout, the fundamental contributing factors that are often overlooked, and how technology can be used to identify and address these issues.

Significant investments are being made in ambient speech technology and education to reduce documentation time, decrease cognitive burden, and improve overall productivity. While these efforts are valuable, it’s time to take a step back and consider all the fundamental factors contributing to burnout, beginning with the low-hanging fruit – long logon times and application slowness. According to KLAS Research, more than half of physicians still report EHR slowness and long logon times as major contributors to dissatisfaction and, ultimately, burnout. In fact, KLAS identified speed & reliability as the foundational element to clinician satisfaction with their EHR.

I recently met with a CMIO who spoke enthusiastically about reducing physician documentation time by 45 minutes per shift. At the same time, however, several physicians are complaining about spending 45 minutes per shift waiting for applications to load and logon issues.

Turnover, The High Cost of Doing Nothing

According to KLAS Research’s Clinician Turnover 2024 report, physicians report EHR inefficiency as a top contributor to burnout. Not surprisingly, burnout is highly correlated to risk of turnover. In another KLAS report, nearly 40% of physicians were found to be at risk of turnover and the cost is steep – upwards of $1M per/physician.

EHR Slowness and Logon Problems are Still a Major Problem 

The Difference a Few Weeks Can Make 

Just a few weeks ago, Goliath received a call from the CTO and CMIO of a leading children’s hospital. They were urgently seeking answers to a persistent EHR slowness issue that was directly impacting physician workflows, and ultimately, patient care. 

Their story was familiar: 

• “We’re getting constant complaints from clinicians. I’ve even walked the floors and seen the delays firsthand.” 

• “Our on-prem infrastructure checks out—no red flags.” 

• “The EMR vendor reports no issues within the application or hosted environment.” 

• “We’ve exhausted every angle—and we heard Goliath might be able to help.” 

After unsuccessful efforts to find the root cause, they engaged Goliath for our 60-day EHR Speed and Reliability Improvement Program with the hope they could uncover the issues in a few days and get some results for clinicians the first week. 

We deployed our technology within days – and in just 24 hours, the hospital had access to user experience reporting and performance insights they’d never seen before. The data revealed that over 140 clinicians were affected by slowness and logon delays, far exceeding acceptable thresholds. Most importantly, we identified the true root cause: issues within the hospital’s own infrastructure – not the EHR vendor. One outdated Citrix server alone was impacting nearly a dozen clinicians daily. 

By the end of the project, we expect this hospital to join the growing list of Goliath Success Stories where we helped health systems reduce downtime, improve clinician satisfaction, and enhance patient care. 

If you are having end user experience issues with your clinical or business applications reach out and let’s discuss. We find and fix very specific issues and in a discovery conversation we will let you know if we can assist. If the issues you are experiencing are outside our purview, we will share that as well.