Physician Health and Wellness

Hi! We wanted to let you know that as medical care providers stressors are inevitable… Oh, you knew that? So weird! We would’ve never guessed, we thought you loved to work crazy hours, losing patients in a pandemic. We’ve got a follow-up question: Have you seen any signs that you might be ready for some help and support? You’re unsure what those would look like. We’ve got a few ideas we’d be happy to share with you:

• Anger, irritability, and feeling like you have a short fuse. You’ve lost patience for your usual non-issue issues and aggravators.
• Anxiety with feelings of depression and sad loneliness. Not really feeling that happy buzz as often as before? Your sad days seem to really come more often than the happy ones.
• Traumatic moments keep coming back to mind. You lost a few regular patients and you’re entirely unsure how to move past it, you replay those moments constantly.
• “I am an island” has become your life’s motto and it’s not at all healthy. You can’t shake it; you prefer not getting attached to people because it hurts a lot less and there’s no disappointment.

We’ve looked at a few resources that could benefit you in these tense times, as well as a few tricks that could help you get back to yourself. These are the items that might help you kick the heaviness somewhere else:

• There are peer-to-peer resources that could really help:
  • PeerRXMed
    • This free program is for physicians and other health care professionals to get support, resources, skill-building, and encouragement through the daily struggles and adventures we’re faced with.
  • American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress
    • Health care workers and emergency responders have a wealth of online support with AAETS to navigate the trauma and stress of daily life.
  • Some tricks and things other professionals in the industry do:
    • Having self-compassion and reminding yourself of the amount of support you have. The pandemic has widened gaps in all lives, but there is always a support system to balance you out and you’re your greatest supporter.
    • Envision positive outcomes. Psychologically we’re always priming ourselves for the worst-case scenario, but envisioning the possible positive outcome will help us to see the silver lining even when our mind goes to the bad first. We also have the ability to walk ourselves off the cliff.
    • Finding a comedy resource helps us de-stress. Even if it’s watching a comedian that has nothing to do with medicine, it brings levity to your life that will help you push past all the serious moments in your day. After all, laughter is the best medicine that can’t be prescribed.
    • Taking charge of the tone of your day will ensure that you are going to have a great day despite what may arise throughout. Something as simple as making the bed, or washing your face with the nice-smelling cleanser. All of those simple things help you set the tone for your day.
    • Express gratitude. It’s simple, yet not many of us realize the health benefits of having a grateful outlook on the world. Even if it’s the gratitude for your coffee maker, which is basically what kick-starts your brain.

Those are a few of the items that other medical professionals are using to take care of themselves. If you’d like to take the stress out of your revenue cycle management process, give Gables Medical Billing a call, that helps destress you from dealing with adjudication and ensure that your claims are filed clean and timely.