A Guide to Addressing Physician Burnout and Wellness for CMOs

Virtua Health's vice president of medical affairs shares the health system's keys to success in reducing physician burnout and promoting physician well-being.

Virtua Health has been making strides in the health system's efforts to address physician burnout and wellness.

Physician burnout is a top concern for CMOs and other clinical leaders across the country. Physician burnout has been linked to quality care problems such as medical errors and is a driver of physician turnover.

Virtua Health was recently named a 2025 Joy in Medicine organization by the American Medical Association. The AMA's Joy in Medicine program recognizes healthcare organizations that promote physician well-being and reduce physician burnout.

Virtua Health has been below the national rate for physician burnout in recent years, according to Christopher Pomrink, DO, MBA, vice president of medical affairs at the health system.

"At Virtua Health, our physician burnout rate has been hovering around 30%," Pomrink says. "The national physician burnout rate peaked at about 63% in 2023. We peaked at about 37% in 2023, and in 2024, it came down to 30%. Now, the national burnout rate has fallen to about 45%."

In addition to measuring physician burnout, Virtua Health monitors physician fulfillment, and the health system is posting impressive results in that area as well.

"In 2023, about 38% of physicians reported being fulfilled in their roles, and that rate has increased to 45% across the medical staff and medical group," Pomrink says. "We are on the right track."

Christopher Pomrink, DO, MBA, is vice president of medical affairs at Virtua Health. Photo courtesy of Virtua Health.

Virtua Health's approach to physician wellness and burnout

Virtua Health takes a multifactorial approach to physician wellness and burnout that begins with engaging the board of directors for awareness and support, Pomrink explains.

"We have focused our effort upstream—finding ways to prevent burnout before it develops," Pomrink says. "We focus on early recognition of burnout and interventions for clinicians who are facing burnout. Then we wrap supportive programs around these efforts."

Virtua Health focuses on both system-level interventions for physician burnout and individual-level interventions, according to Pomrink.

At the system level, efforts to address physician burnout at Virtua Health include removing administrative burdens from physicians and optimizing the electronic health record.

"We have been removing clicks or buttons in the EHR that don't need to be there," Pomrink says. "We also have been using ambient listening technology to record encounters between clinicians and patients, then generate a clinical note to reduce documentation time in the EHR."

Another system-level effort has been an organizational commitment to reduce stigma associated with physician burnout.

"We have engrained addressing physician burnout into our meetings, culture, dialogue with physicians, and values," Pomrink says. "At Virtua Health, we have a culture of working together to support our patients, and our culture recognizes that when one of us struggles, we all struggle."

At the individual level, Virtua Health's efforts to address physician burnout include promoting resilience.

"One of our resilience-building initiatives is a program called Practicing Excellence, which features online learning opportunities that help physicians and all staff members reconnect with their purpose and why they got into the medical field," Pomrink says. "This program also helps physicians and other staff members connect with each other."

A particularly successful individual-level intervention has been a peer support program.

"The peer support program is run by physicians, who have a sympathetic ear," Pomrink says. "Physicians can have confidential conversations with peers, who can provide support, coping strategies, and guide struggling physicians to resources."

An essential element of Virtua Health's success in promoting physician well-being is measuring burnout, Pomrink explains.

"Unless we measure burnout, we can't know how we are doing in addressing it," Pomrink says. "You cannot fix what you do not measure."

To measure physician burnout and wellness, Virtua Health uses the Stanford Medicine survey, which is validated and used by many healthcare organizations across the country. The survey gives the health system a compilation of data on wellness and burnout as well as key drivers of burnout.

Measuring physician wellness and burnout has given Virtua Health guidance on which interventions to implement, according to Pomrink.

"We can get physician feedback about their main concerns," Pomrink says. "We get recommendations for interventions from physicians. Then we can move into initiatives such as our physician committees, including our Physician Wellness Committee."