Johnson & Johnson Takes on Healthcare Workers Burnout

Editor's Note: This story is part of an editorial series featuring companies on CR Magazine's 20th annual 100 Best Corporate Citizens ranking, which recognizes outstanding environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure and performance among the Russell 1,000 Index. You can follow the series here. 

With National Nurses Week in the rearview mirror, an ongoing challenge that remains for the medical sector is curbing healthcare workers’ burnout.

Johnson & Johnson recently introduced a program aimed at giving healthcare workers the support needed to avoid burnout. Burnout and all of its symptoms, including exhaustion, cynicism and decreased on-the-job effectiveness, can all have an effect on patient care, safety and satisfaction. A reported 70 percent of nurses and 54 percent of physicians experience these symptoms at some point during their careers. Employee burnout costs healthcare systems billions of dollars annually due to lost productivity, employee turnover and absenteeism.

While the Code of Ethics for Healthcare Quality Professionals lists self-care at the top, burnout continues to be endemic across the healthcare industry. Many institutions operate under the premise that burnout and professional satisfaction are largely the responsibility of the individual employee. Yet when the costs associated with replacing a physician—recruitment, on-boarding and lost patient care revenue, estimated to be two to three times a physician’s annual salary—are taken into consideration, sharing responsibility and incorporating proactive programs to reduce makes absolute business sense.

Forwarding the notion of shared responsibility, what if—instead of limiting healthcare provider support to product samples and patient assistance programs—more companies in the healthcare sector provide programs that offered assistance to healthcare professionals so they can feel healthier, more productive and better supported in accomplishing their work?

CareAdvantage, from the Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies (JJMDC), is a model of such collaboration. The service offers third-party support for administrative responsibilities such as combating burnout by fostering a healthy workforce, streamlining surgery preparations, devising ways that purchasing and sustainability teams can meet Environmental Preferable Purchasing (EPP) goals, and more.

The CareAdvantage initiative was born from Johnson & Johnson’s more than 75-year-old credo that begins with this statement: “We believe our first responsibility is to the patients, doctors and nurses, to mothers and fathers and all others who use our products and services.”

No matter how a healthcare system wants to improve organizational efficiency, JJMDC experts—ranging from health economists to scientists and clinicians—can offer staff support. Housed under the world’s largest independent biotechnology company, JJMDC says it offers a broad network of specialists that can be recruited to help identify a health system’s distinct needs and design plans to address those needs in a meaningful way. The CareAdvantage approach consists of:

• Identifying needs by discussing opportunities and performing analysis.

• On-boarding experts from Johnson & Johnson to assist with facilitation.

• Delivering results through tailored, measurable approaches.

According to JJMDC, this program has resulted in many positive outcomes for healthcare systems—from aiding hospitals in reducing the number of surgery cancellations by optimizing communications, to helping hip fracture patients recover faster by implementing a proven care template. A few other notable program developments include supply chain optimization with Michigan-based Spectrum Health and streamlining Ethicon suture inventory management with California-based Scripps Health.

Under the wide umbrella held by the Johnson & Johnson portfolio of companies, the CareAdvantage program has the potential to help healthcare professionals in an unprecedented way. This program could serve as an example for other healthcare companies that sharing industry responsibilities can facilitate shared success.

Image credit: Hush Naidoo/Unsplash