Effective health systems don’t just stop at measurement. They are using data to choose focused interventions—and they are honest about where the work still falls short.
Leaders from Northwell Health, Ochsner Health and Sutter Health discussed successes and areas for improvement during a session on physician wellbeing at the Becker's Annual Meeting hosted by the AMA. Each organization 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.
Healthcare organizations have reached an important turning point in physician well-being, said Heather Farley, MD, MHCS, the AMA’s group vice president of professional satisfaction and practice sustainability.
National trends are moving in the right direction: burnout is declining, job satisfaction is increasing and physicians' intent to leave their organizations is falling. But those gains should not lead to complacency because, while these improvements are meaningful, there is still a long way to go to get healthcare where it needs to be.
"That does not mean that it's time to take our foot off the gas," Dr. Farley said. "Quite the opposite—pedal to the metal."
Instead, she urged health systems to build on the momentum and "get that flywheel turning."
During the session, speakers laid out three “what’s working” lanes: leadership development, ambient augmented intelligence (AI) and physician connection and culture. They also shared three “still to solve” lanes: gender gaps, inbox burden and work after work, and empowerment and career conversations. Here is what these well-being leaders shared to keep well-being work moving forward.
Invest in leadership
Even through historically challenging times, Ochsner has maintained its physician well-being work, making leadership development one of five strategic areas.
"We've seen some positive momentum," said Nigel Girgrah, MD, PhD, chief wellness officer for Ochsner Health.
He attributed that progress to an executive team that remained committed to improving physician well-being despite challenging years following the COVID-19 public health emergency. Rather than focusing only on outcomes, leaders concentrated on "structures and processes," consistent with the AMA's organizational framework.
Leadership development has become one of the organization's five well-being strategic priorities because, said Dr. Girgrah, "the greatest driver of professional fulfillment is the perceived quality of one's leader."
To strengthen leadership skills at every level, the organization offers development programs for established, emerging and frontline physician leaders. One flagship initiative, the Personal Leadership Program, takes physicians off campus for a four-day retreat focused on self-awareness and personal growth. Participants examine how their life experiences have shaped their beliefs and biases.
"Some of those biases were formed in childhood," Dr. Girgrah said, "and may not serve you when you're leading a service line."
The goal, he said, is to help physicians lead more fulfilling lives—not only with their work teams but "more importantly, with the home team."
Ochsner Health has used the AMA Organizational Biopsy® to evaluate physicians who completed the program. While Dr. Girgrah emphasized that the results do not establish cause and effect, participants have shown improvements across several key measures, including lower job stress, higher job satisfaction, reduced burnout, and stronger feelings of being valued by the organization.
"It's allowed us to really take something that was an idea and be able to measure it and see impact," he said.
Use AI to ease the work
Sutter Health has pursued improvements through multiple strategies but highlighted one initiative in particular: ambient AI documentation tools. Specifically, the health system has been using an ambient AI scribe across its outpatient clinics to study its impact on physicians and advanced practice clinicians measuring cognitive load, note time and work-life balance. The technology is one part of Sutter’s broader approach to supporting well-being, alongside efforts to improve staffing, workflows, leadership support and administrative burden.
"We've been studying it, measuring it as we've moved this along," using surveys to evaluate how the technology affects clinicians' daily work, said Jill Kacher Cobb, MD, an anesthesiologist who is Sutter’s chief wellness officer and vice president.
The results have been encouraging. Sutter Health has seen "a statistically significant decrease in the cognitive load" experienced by physicians and other health professionals. About half of clinicians either agreed or strongly agreed that they felt "less hurried and rushed while writing their notes," and they also reported less of a cognitive or mental burden associated with documentation.
In a study published in JAMA Network Open in 2025, clinicians experienced a significant decrease in documentation time, with average time spent on notes per appointment falling from 6.2 to 5.3 minutes.
Dr. Kacher Cobb noted that Sutter has taken a thoughtful approach to implementation, incorporating clinician feedback, ongoing evaluation and oversight, while maintaining a focus on patient privacy, data security, accuracy and appropriate use.
"We saw the signal" in the organization's annual physician experience survey, Dr. Kacher-Cobb said. "We are really impressed with the impact that it's had on our clinicians."
In fact, many say it’s helped them achieve a healthier balance between work and home life.”
Build connection back in
Cultivating a strong organizational culture is another key ingredient of fostering physician well-being.
"Northwell is pretty obsessed with the culture," said Mark Adams Talamini, MD, senior vice president and executive director for Northwell Health Physician Partners, noting that the health system's leadership has made culture a priority for decades. The organization emphasizes optimism, relationships, growth and adaptability, and leaders work intentionally to ensure those values extend to physicians.
One example is the health system's "Doctor's Lounge" events, created to replace the informal interactions that once took place in hospital physicians' lounges.
"We all used to hang in the doctor's lounge in the hospital," Dr. Talamini said. "That's where we related to one another. That's where we got to know one another. That's gone."
As the health system continues to grow by 10% to 15% each year, Dr. Talamini said it can be easy for physicians to feel disconnected, noting that “it's easy for physicians ... to be out in corners of the organization and feel relatively alone.”
To recreate those connections, Northwell hosts dinners twice a year in each of its four markets, bringing together 200 to 300 physicians simply to socialize, network and spend time together. Senior executives also attend to answer questions and engage with physicians in an informal setting.
The organization also sponsors "Connect the Docs," which sponsors small groups of physicians to gather around shared interests—from skiing to wine to other hobbies.
"We'll find the restaurant, we'll pay for it," Dr. Talamini said. "We just tell them we want pictures later on."
Another physician-led initiative is the annual Truly Awards, a recognition program that celebrates physicians who exemplify the organization's core cultural values. The process begins with peer nominations, and last year roughly 22% of Northwell’s employed physicians were nominated.
"Think about that," Dr. Talamini said. "Somebody sat down and wrote a nomination letter, and then they got that letter and saw what somebody said about them."
Finalists are honored during a ceremony modeled after the Academy Awards, while physicians who receive five-star patient ratings are also recognized. View the video here.
Although the programs may sound unconventional, Dr. Talamini said they have been embraced by physicians.
"Our physicians love this and truly feel recognized and appreciated. That is special," he emphasized.
Study the gaps honestly
Dr. Girgrah noted that one area requiring greater attention is the persistent gender gap in physician well-being.
After reviewing organizational data with Ochsner’s board of directors, he noted that female physicians consistently reported lower well-being scores than their male colleagues by nearly 10 percentage points. Several board members challenged him to look beyond national trends and identify the causes within the organization.
"They said, 'We want to understand why this is happening at Ochsner, specifically,'" he recalled.
In response, the organization conducted focus groups with women physicians. Some of the themes were familiar, including frustrations with societal expectations, the challenges of dual-career households, and perceptions that women feel they are overlooked for leadership opportunities because others assume they are not interested.
Significantly, Ochsner Health also analyzed EHR data and uncovered measurable differences in physicians' workloads. Women physicians spent more time documenting in the EHR and received about 30% more staff messages and 30% more patient messages than their male colleagues.
"We don't have an answer yet," Dr. Girgrah said. "We have to understand why this is happening and address this significant disparity in messaging overload."
While no single solution will eliminate the disparity, he said, understanding the underlying causes is the first step toward meaningful improvement.
Dr. Girgrah also shared a personal story about receiving a call that his young son was sick while he was seeing patients. His immediate reaction was to ask whether his wife had been contacted before realizing she was five hours away. Reflecting on that moment, he said, "How pathetic is that? I really had no backup plan," illustrating how deeply ingrained assumptions about caregiving responsibilities can be.
Do not let AI become the whole story
Sutter Health has seen encouraging progress across multiple measures of physician experience, including well-being, engagement, leadership alignment and burnout.
Using a single-item burnout measure, the organization has recorded a statistically significant decline in burnout since 2022. The data showed a 26% decrease in burnout among its medical staff and 42% decrease among physicians in its medical groups in 2022.
"Right now, we're sitting at 25% burnout among our medical staff and medical groups," said Dr. Kacher Cobb. "While that's better than the national average, it's still a quarter of our physicians and APCs" who report experiencing burnout.
One of its biggest opportunities is scaling successful physician well-being initiatives across its large and diverse health system.
"We have many of our medical groups and hospitals with pretty amazing well-being programs," she said, noting that several have received national recognition. The challenge is that those successes often exist in isolated pockets.
"How do we really pull them out and connect them and impact even more individuals across our organization?" Dr. Kacher Cobb questioned.
To address that challenge, Sutter Health launched an Office of Wellbeing and began bringing clinician well-being leaders together monthly, along with twice-yearly retreats. Before the most recent retreat, participants were asked to review their survey results, identify one or two successes, highlight two or three opportunities for improvement, and develop goals for 2026.
During the retreat, leaders compared findings in small groups before identifying which challenges could be addressed locally and which required systemwide solutions.
Three priorities quickly emerged. The first was reducing electronic inbox burden and "work after work," often referred to as "pajama time." While ambient AI and other tools have helped reduce documentation burdens, Dr. Kacher Cobb said, "we still have opportunities here."
A systemwide team is now exploring additional AI tools to help manage inbox messages more efficiently.
The second theme was strengthening alignment between physicians and organizational leadership. Although survey results showed meaningful improvement, participants agreed there is still room to build trust and engagement.
A third priority was communication. Dr. Kacher Cobb said participants identified "utilizing communication as a strategy" as an important opportunity to better connect physicians and nonphysician providers with the well-being resources already available across the health system. The retreat included a dedicated discussion on improving communication and helping clinicians better understand the programs and support offered throughout the organization.
Help doctors adapt to AI
Northwell Health, according to Dr. Talamini, has made significant progress in reducing physician burnout, with rates falling from 44% in 2023 to 30% in 2025. The latest measurement comes from a 77% response rate in the annual survey, a total of 4,020 responses.
Survey results also identified two organization-wide priorities: physician empowerment and more meaningful career conversations.
Looking ahead, Dr. Talamini noted that AI represents a much broader transformation than simply adopting ambient documentation tools.
"It's really not about that," he said. "This is the next great platform revolution."
He compared today's AI transformation to the arrival of personal computers.
"During the PC era, physicians who figured out how to use Excel spreadsheets did a lot better in life. Those who never figured it out didn't do so well," Dr. Talamini said. "That's what we're going through right now—only in many ways to a far larger degree."
Rather than simply deploying new technology, health systems have a responsibility to help physicians adapt to it.
"We owe it to our physicians to help them through this," Dr. Talamini said. While ambient AI documentation is "a fabulous" tool, he called it "just the tip of the iceberg."
Ultimately, "we have to figure out how we get our physicians through this huge platform revolution in a way that makes their lives better and the care of their patients,” he said.
Be “relentless” in balancing demands and resources
Closing the discussion, Dr. Farley said achieving lasting progress will require alignment across the healthcare ecosystem. Every health system has ambitious strategic goals, but "our ability to execute successfully on those strategic plans depends on a robust and thriving healthcare workforce."
Dr. Farley called on healthcare leaders to remain "relentless" in restoring the balance between physicians' job demands and the resources available to support them.
"The systems that get that, that lead that transformation, will lead the industry," she said.
