As a three-time Gold-level recognized organization in the AMA’s Joy in Medicine® Health System Recognition Program, Ochsner Health decided it was time to roll up its sleeves and move beyond general improvements.
“We're trying to be a little more precise in terms of how we’re targeting our energy,” explained Nigel Girgrah, MD, PhD, chief wellness officer for Ochsner Health.
Identifying high value teams that are struggling, then applying a structured approach to reinvigorate their day-to-day practices is part of Ochsner’s new agenda.
New Orleans-based Ochsner Health is part of the AMA Health System Member Program, which provides enterprise solutions to equip leadership, physicians and care teams with resources to help drive the future of medicine.
Ochsner’s strategy is shaped by a combination of quantitative data, qualitative feedback and operational metrics. But most importantly, it tunes in to the needs of its physicians and other health professionals. Collaboration across the organization has been essential to advancing physician well-being initiatives.
Dr. Girgrah, who practices transplant hepatology at Ochsner Health, meets regularly with frontline teams to hear directly about the challenges they face “and about what I call the pebbles and the rocks in their shoes,” he said.
To cast a wider net across the health system, which spans much of Louisiana and Mississippi, as well as a hospital in Alabama, Dr. Girgrah also conducts listening tours across the organization. The goal is to hear directly from people about what they’ve been experiencing, and to share what the health system is doing.
Such interactions provide valuable qualitative insight, he said. Additionally, he gathers insights through collaboration with other health systems. Ochsner participates in regular meetings with leaders at Geisinger Health through CHARM: The Collaborative for Healing and Renewal in Medicine. He connects monthly with other chief wellness officers to exchange best practices.
Team-based interventions flag problems
“One thing that’s really been new for us over the past year is team-based interventions,” Dr. Girgrah said. “In many ways, that’s the new frontier for us.”
This effort focuses on identifying critical teams that are struggling. Those teams are identified through referrals from senior leaders, in-person listening sessions, as well as by analyzing data from Ochsner’s well-being survey through the AMA Organizational Biopsy®.
“When you meet with these teams that need morale support, you will often hear that there are multiple issues across the team,” he said.
To solve the problem, Dr. Girgrah said Ochsner has implemented a more structured process for team improvement. It is led by John Sawyer, PhD, Ochsner’s medical director of professional staff experience.
Sawyer has been developing a structured approach for working with teams that are struggling, to help reinvigorate them, Dr. Girgrah said.
While the work can be demanding, he said the early results have been encouraging, noting that “it’s heavy lifting, but it’s important work—and we’re starting to see success.”
As the leader in physician well-being, the AMA is reducing physician burnout by removing administrative burdens and providing real-world solutions to help doctors rediscover the Joy in Medicine.
AI technologies enhance daily practice
Ochsner has also relied on augmented intelligence (AI) technology to help translate physician feedback into changes that affect daily practice.
Ambient listening is a good example of identifying an unmet need, Dr. Girgrah explained. Across the organization, but particularly among primary care physicians, Ochsner has heard about the amount of time being spent on documentation and note-writing.
The health system has expanded the use of ambient listening tools that help generate clinical documentation, as well as AI-supported and workflow-based changes designed to triage patient messages in physicians’ EHR inboxes.
“Over the last three to four years, we’ve really chipped away at that. Now we’re around the 50th percentile” among Epic users, he said.
The rollout of ambient listening tools has required close collaboration across the organization.
“It’s been an excellent illustration of cooperation between the Office of Professional Well-being, which I lead, and our operational units,” Dr. Girgrah said. “Together we’ve worked to determine where to deploy the technology, how to deploy it effectively, and how to measure success.”
The health system is currently tracking several outcomes to assess its impact, including changes in physicians’ cognitive load, reductions in documentation time and improvements in time spent completing notes.
Panel sets group practice commitments
Dr. Girgrah noted that the Joy in Medicine recognition reflects a broader cultural shift within Ochsner Health. In recent years, the organization has undertaken a deliberate effort to define its core values and the behaviors and commitments that operationalize them, with physician well-being integrated as a central element.
He emphasized that progress in physician well-being requires coordinated engagement across the organization.
In January 2025, Ochsner’s Chief Physician Executive, Robert Hart, MD, initiated the development of a formal physician compact, subsequently named the Ochsner Group Practice Commitments. This work was conducted through collaboration between the Professional Affairs Committee, which includes physicians and physician leaders representing diverse specialties and geographic regions, and the Physician Leader Roundtable, composed of system-level executive physician leaders.
Over a 10-month period, these groups developed a set of commitments outlining mutual expectations between physicians and the organization. The resulting framework reflects input from members of the group practice and defines the values and behaviors intended to support clinical practice and patient care across the system.
The Group Practice Commitments establish a shared understanding of expectations for physicians, advanced practice providers, and the organization, including approaches to professional conduct, leadership, and organizational alignment.
According to Dr. Girgrah, physician well-being is a prominent component of the commitments, reflected in both physician and organizational responsibilities. He noted that its inclusion represents an evolution in the organization’s culture over time.
Download the 2025 AMA Joy in Medicine® magazine (log into your AMA account to view) to see whether your organization is part of the prestigious group of 164 organizations across 40 states and the District of Columbia that are currently recognized for their dedication to physician well-being.
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