CMO Exchange: Denver Health Adopts RISE Healthcare Worker Wellness Program.

According to Denver Health’s Chief Medical Officer, the program is specifically designed to support healthcare workers.

Denver Health has implemented the Resilience in Stressful Events (RISE) program to help improve the health system’s health care worker well-being, Chief Medical Officer Connie Savor Price, MD, MBA, said recently. HealthLeaders CMO Exchange.

Stress and burnout are common in the healthcare industry. During the corona virus epidemic, health care worker burnout has reached a critical level, according to a health care worker safety expert They spoke Health leaders. Before the coronavirus pandemic, burnout rates for healthcare workers averaged between 30 percent and 50 percent, he said. Bernadette Melnyk, PhD, APRN-CNP, Ohio State University’s Chief Safety Officer and Dean of the University’s College of Nursing. Now the burn rate ranges from 40% to 70%, she said.

RISE was developed by Johns Hopkins Medicine specifically to help healthcare workers, Price said. “The concept of RISE is aimed at the special needs of health care providers and the problems they face in some health care providers. Health care providers are involved in negative patient events and medical errors, and witnessing those can cause emotional or even physical distress.

RISE programming is designed to play a supportive role for health care workers, she says. “RISE is fundamentally a service of empathy, listening, validation and normalization. This connection facilitates connection to other providers and resources if necessary. It is available 24/7 and strictly confidential. RISE is not counseling. It is not a problem-solving service, psychotherapy or any form of psychotherapy. It is not provided. It is a support service, listening and communication with other resources.

Denver Health launched seven RISE initiatives:

• 24/7 Rise Line (303-436-Rise): This telephone-based service provides 24/7 emotional support and psychological first aid, including referrals to safety resources.
• Department or team-specific RISE team support: Group support opportunities are available in person or in person. Any leader can activate a group support request by sending an email. dhrise@dhha.org Or by calling the 24/7 RISE Line for urgent questions.
• Employee Support Center launched. This is a unique space run by RISE Peer Responders that provides staff with a space for self-care, reflection, emotional support and resources, snacks and refreshments. The support center is open seven days a week from 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• Interdisciplinary Virtual RISE Team Support: These group support opportunities are offered weekly for different themes of stress and specific affinity groups such as Black Affinity Groups.
• Peer Abuse Care Team: PACT provides immediate, confidential and voluntary support to employees after a workplace assault. A PACT response can be initiated by any employee or leader by calling the 24/7 RISE Line and asking for a PACT responder.
• Distribution of RISE: RISE Peer Responders are available to provide services to staff to promote RISE services and assess needs. Peer responders provide emotional support, psychological first aid, and connections to resources. Requests for deploying deployment services can be submitted via email dhrise@dhha.org Or by calling the 24/7 RISE Line.
• Get up 2 you. This mobile service can be requested to come to a ward or clinic. RISE peer respondents and other resources are available by email dhrise@dhha.org.

Stress in health care settings

There are many sources of stress among health care workers, Price says.

“I’m at a Level 1 trauma center and public health hospital, and our service workers often witness tragic events. The problem with being a ‘second victim’ is that you often feel personally responsible for the outcome. Sometimes, you feel like you should have. You could have done more.” – You question whether you have done all you can do. So, there are special needs among health care providers, and there are things we see in the workplace, such as increased violence, ethical problems, and moral distress. – There are patients who cannot get the health care they need because they do not have proper insurance. – There is a lot of stress in healthcare teams,” she says.

At Denver Health, three dozen stress themes were identified between July 5 and August 1 this year, including grief and loss, death of patients and co-workers, physical and mental fatigue, conflict with co-workers, staff shortages, isolation and loneliness, and the desire to quit.

Related: 4 Hot Topics at HealthLeads Chief Medical Officer Exchange