Clinical trial NCT02542995: Creating Healthy Work Places (HWP) Study
Official title: Creating Healthy Workplaces: Improving Outcomes for Providers and Patients
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Burnout, Professional
Lead sponsor: Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
name: University of Wisconsin, Madison
name: Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation
name: New York University
name: Loyola University School of Medicine
name: University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa
name: University of Missouri-Columbia
First posted: 2015-09-07
Enrollment: 1296
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Brief summary: The health of the public depends upon smoothly functioning physician offices that promote the health of both workers and their patients. This study targets ambulatory health care offices with rapid paced, chaotic environments. Investigators will measure adverse outcomes for providers and staff (e.g., stress and burnout), the impact these have on quality of care for hypertensive, diabetic and depressed patients, and identify areas where practice redesign to create "healthy workplaces" improves these outcomes.

Detailed description: The context in which primary care is delivered is rarely evaluated as part of quality improvement initiatives or research projects. Data from the MEMO Study (Minimizing Error, Maximizing Outcome) confirm a relationship between the work environment, provider reactions, and patient care. Time pressure is associated with physician satisfaction, stress, burnout, and intent to leave as well as lower quality care for hypertensive patients. Lack of values alignment between physicians and leaders is associated with physician satisfaction, stress, burnout, and intent to leave as well as poorer diabetes care and fewer prevention activities. Thus, providers are not the only ones at risk in adverse work conditions. An important coexisting factor is the impending primary care physician shortage. Less than optimal work conditions are associated with physician intent to leave and with reduced medical student interest in primary care. This randomized study assessed the impact of applying a novel quality improvement strategy designed to create "healthy workplaces".

The investigators hypothesized that addressing adverse primary care work conditions (workflow, work control, organizational culture) would lead to greater clinician participation in programs to improve health care delivery. As part of MEMO, the investigators developed the Office and Work Life (OWL) measurement tool. The OWL assesses the primary care workplace and identifies specific working conditions that impact provider outcomes and quality of care. The current proposal assessed the ability of the OWL and a focused QI process to facilitate changes in the work environment and improve outcomes for providers and patients.

Thirty-four primary care clinics were recruited in New York City and the upper Midwest. Physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners (n=165) were surveyed to collect OWL data on provider outcomes, and organizational structure and culture. Managers were asked to provide information on clinic structure, policies and procedures. Eight patients per provider (n=1131) with hypertension and /or diabetes will be surveyed on health literacy, quality of life, medication compliance, satisfaction, and trust. Patient charts were audited to assess hypertension and diabetes management. The data was then compiled into an OWL measure for each clinic.

34 clinics were randomized. Local leaders, providers, and staff in 17 intervention clinics received their OWL measure and discussed the successes and challenges to care illustrated by the data. Assisted by the study team, they developed QI plans focusing on workplace variables that investigators found contributed to care quality: time pressure, work control, work pace (chaos), and organizational culture. Twelve months later (Aug. 2012 - Jan. 2013), OWL data was recollected in all 34 clinics and compared.

New OWL data was fed back to personnel in the 17 intervention clinics to formalize its role in continuous QI processes. Control clinics received their OWL data at study end. Subsets of data were analyzed to determine the best ways to modify the work environment to improve outcomes for underrepresented groups (women and minority providers and minority patients).

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* 18+,
* have a primary care provider at one of enrolling institutions,
* have a primary care visit within year of enrollment

Exclusion Criteria:

* Deceased,
* inability to communicate (hard of hearing), etc.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Medical provider stress and burnout
timeFrame: Provider outcomes were measured approximately one year after the interventions
measure: Patient satisfaction with care
timeFrame: Patient satisfaction was measured at baseline and approxmiaetly one year after the interventions
measure: Patient quality of care
timeFrame: Patient quality of care was measured at baseline and approxmiaetly one yr after the interventions
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Provider turnover (cost)
timeFrame: Provider turnover (cost) was mesasured about one year after the interventions
Other outcomes:
Locations:
Study officials:
affiliation: MMRF
name: Mark Linzer, MD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Khullar D, Prasad K, Neprash H, Poplau S, Brown RL, Williams ES, Audi C, Linzer M. Factors associated with patient trust in their clinicians: Results from the Healthy Work Place Study. Health Care Manage Rev. 2022 Oct-Dec 01;47(4):289-296. doi: 10.1097/HMR.0000000000000336. Epub 2022 Feb 17.
citation: Linzer M, Poplau S, Brown R, Grossman E, Varkey A, Yale S, Williams ES, Hicks L, Wallock J, Kohnhorst D, Barbouche M. Do Work Condition Interventions Affect Quality and Errors in Primary Care? Results from the Healthy Work Place Study. J Gen Intern Med. 2017 Jan;32(1):56-61. doi: 10.1007/s11606-016-3856-2. Epub 2016 Sep 9.