REPLAY: The Importance of Disconnection

Welcome to the AMA Steps Forward podcast.

Here we explore physician-developed solutions to help care teams and their organizations thrive.

Empowering physicians, transforming practices.

This is

AMA Steps Forward.

Hello, and welcome to this episode in the AMA Steps Forward podcast series.

This is your host, Dr. Kevin Hopkins, a family medicine physician at Cleveland Clinic and physician director of health system engagement here at the AMA.

How many days do you take off work in a year? I mean, really off, like totally disconnecting.

Not doing any work-related tasks, not reading emails, not thinking about how to solve a problem at the office, or reading about the symptoms of that one patient you just haven't been able to diagnose.

About five years ago, our family was on a vacation at a large, very well-known theme park resort in Florida.

During one of the mornings, my phone rang, and I answered it, not at all expecting who was on the other end.

It was a patient of mine who had called my office and had somehow been cold transferred directly to my mobile phone.

Imagine my surprise.

And his.

I explained the situation to him and he apologized for the strange circumstances through which we had been connected and then he proceeded to let me know about the problems he was having.

I, of course, listened and gave advice on how best to treat his symptoms, taking a significant break from my family time, including a couple additional phone calls to my office and then being frustrated about it for the next few hours.

According to survey data, physicians typically have 25 to 35 days of paid time off, or PTO, each year, and yet...

A 2023 study of over 3,000 U.S. physicians across multiple organizations and specialties revealed that approximately 60% of U.S. physicians reported taking 15 or fewer days of vacation per year, and 20% reported taking 5 or fewer days per year, less than a week.

The same study showed that spending more than 30 minutes a day on patient-related work during vacation

was associated with higher odds of burnout.

On the flip side, taking more than three weeks of vacation per year or 15 weekdays and having full electronic health record inbox coverage while you're away was associated with lower odds of burnout.

Imagine that.

Time away from work responsibilities to rest and recover from work-related physical, mental, cognitive, and emotional demands is crucial.

To discuss the importance of disconnection, I'm joined by our guest, my good friend and colleague, Dr.

Rob Saper, Rob's chair of the Department of Wellness and Preventive Medicine at Cleveland Clinic.

Thank you, Rob, for being on the podcast.

Thank you, Kevin.

It's a pleasure.

Well, before we get started into our topic for the day, would you mind, Rob, telling our listeners just a little bit more about yourself and background of what I was able to share?