Gold-level recognition from the AMA’s Joy in Medicine® Health System Recognition Program marks a meaningful milestone for Advocate Health, but it’s not a finish line. The designation reflects years of intentional work to build a culture that supports physician well-being, reduces burnout and centers the needs of care teams across a large, complex system.
Yet leaders at Advocate Health are clear-eyed about what comes next. Recognition affirms progress but sustaining it—and translating it into lasting change for physicians and patients alike—requires continued focus, measurement and action. For Advocate Health, earning gold is both validation of what’s working and a call to keep pushing the work forward.
Now that Advocate Health has received gold-level recognition for the entire organization, Suzanna Fox, MD, wants to be bold. She has no intention of slowing down.
“There’s a lot of work to be done and I would love to not settle with a gold but have an even bolder goal—the sky’s the limit goal,” said Dr. Fox, an ob-gyn and EVP chief physician officer of Advocate Health.
Advocate 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.
Enhance team-based care
A major effort that started with Atrium Health and has since been implemented across Advocate Health is the “Best Place to Care” initiative. Part of the system’s ongoing work after receiving gold level recognition is to expand this program.
“We are in the process of expanding our Best Place to Care initiative to nursing, which is really important,” Dr. Fox said. “Historically, it’s been primarily with physicians and advanced practice professionals. We have done great work there, and we’re not taking our eye off of that at all. That is critically important. Now we’re just bringing in nursing too.”
“Now we are revamping our efforts bringing in the lens of the nurse to this work,” she said. “You cannot provide care without nurses, so you cannot be the ‘best place to care’ without expanding this work to nursing.”
That is why Advocate Health has expanded their work streams to include nursing leaders with the physician-led care teams and set strategic goals for the next year together. This team-based care approach helps ensure all members of the team are prioritized.
“With our new physician, advanced practice professionals and nurse led framework, we’re looking for ways to really build the culture around our physician, advanced practice professionals and nurse care to advance it even more than it’s elevated today,” she said, emphasizing that “we’re very excited about that.”
Additionally, Advocate Health has “gotten so much notoriety with the Best Place to Care within and outside of the organization, it has opened up many new opportunities to share with others about the work, while also learning from other health systems,” Dr. Fox said.
This is important because “for the betterment of our patients and patient care, if you have a true team that works together with your nurses, advanced practice professionals and physicians on the floor, you can’t get better care than that,” she said, “knowing that everyone is aligned for the patient.”
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.
Maintain support from executive team
When Dr. Fox spoke at the 2025 American Conference on Physician Health™ in Boston, she received a lot of questions from physicians who said their organizations were “struggling with developing this work because their leaders don’t see the importance of it.”
Advocate Health CEO Gene Woods and chief clinical officer Scott Rismiller, MD, have been key players in the well-being work that Dr. Fox and her team lead.
In fact, the Best Place to Care initiative was Dr. Rissmiller’s “brainchild,” she said, adding that both Woods and Dr. Rissmiller “support so much in this work that you can’t do it within an organization that doesn’t see the importance of what physician well-being and culture is.”
Woods, Dr. Rissmiller “and now Betty Jo Rocchio, who is our new chief nursing executive, they all get it to the point that they realize it’s a priority,” said Dr. Fox, “and that makes it so much easier for us than it does maybe other organizations that don’t see the importance of this work."
"We have an amazing team, and they do amazing work, and we’ve got great physicians and advanced practice professionals,” she said, “but we could not do it without the support of our executive team and realizing the importance of the work.”
“This is what gets me up in the morning. This work is more important than most anything we do because without it, we’re not taking the best care of our patients and they deserve that,” said Dr. Fox. “Of all the things that I do, this doesn’t feel like work because this is what I love to do, and I am so privileged to be able to lead it.”
Find ways to avoid survey fatigue
Advocate Health has an annual culture of safety and a well-being survey. Both were completed in March 2025 with outstanding participation from physicians, improving 20% year over year for participation. But the health system also used the AMA’s Organizational Biopsy® six months later.
“I do think there is survey fatigue because we did see a dip in participation in our recent survey,” said Dr. Fox. “So, in retrospect, maybe with those many voices that we had just a few months ago that we may be seeing some of that fatigue, so we want to be very cognizant of that. We also remain committed to reviewing each of the comments shared and consider this data as integral to maintaining a strategy relevant to the needs of our caregivers.”
“The AMA survey is probably one of the most important surveys that we do because it is specifically tailored for physicians,” she said. “And we have trending data for that so we can look to see how we’re doing.”
“It is a delicate balance on how often we ask for the voices of our physicians,” said Dr. Fox.
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.
AMA STEPS Forward® resources offer innovative, physician-developed strategies that allow doctors and their organizations to thrive in the new health care environment. These resources can help you prevent burnout and improve practice efficiency.
