How Northwell Health built a physician-led well-being strategy

In 2021, Northwell Health’s engagement survey revealed 45% of physicians felt burned out. While still below the national rate of approximately 63% at the time, the trend at Northwell was clear and concerning. 

For Northwell’s leadership, this wasn’t just a data point. It was a signal that something needed to change in a meaningful, systemwide way. 

“In 2021, there was a shift that mirrored the Delta wave [of the COVID-19 public health emergency],” explained Jacqueline Moline, MD. She described a widespread sense of demoralization, as people felt they had to “go through this all again and it’s worse and more people got infected.’” 

Dr. Moline is an occupational medicine physician with Northwell Health. She is also chair of the Physician Well-Being Committee and senior vice president of occupational medicine, epidemiology and prevention at Northwell Health. 

Northwell Health is part of the AMA Health System Member Program, which provides enterprise solutions to equip leadership, physicians and care teams with resources to help drive the future of medicine.

“Physicians were just not happy, and that was the starting point of our journey,” said Dr. Moline.

At that point, Northwell Health had already established its physician well-being committee, but this moment became the catalyst to elevate and expand its efforts.  

To accelerate its work, Northwell Health applied for the AMA’s Joy in Medicine® Health System Recognition Program. Northwell Health earned Silver-level recognition in 2024 and is now working toward Gold.

“Getting to Silver allowed us to be part of a national platform and showcase the work we’ve been championing for years,” said Dr. Moline. “It was critical to get that organizational shoutout, so people know that we’re serious. It shows that true commitment to physician well-being.”

The impact of this commitment is measurable too. Since 2021, Northwell’s physician burnout rate has decreased by 17% and it continues to trend downward. 

“Having the Joy in Medicine framework has allowed us to validate our strategic direction,” said Dr. Moline.

That framework has also strengthened the team’s ability to influence how physician well-being is measured across the organization. 

“It enabled us to push back as the organization was designing the engagement survey to say we needed to include the Mini-Z in the survey. That was non-negotiable for us because we need that data,” Dr. Moline said.

The Mini-Z is a nine-item inventory of validated questions used to measure burnout.

Local empowerment

With 28 hospitals across the Northwell Health system, implementing a cohesive well-being strategy is inherently complex. Northwell addressed this by establishing local physician well-being committees at each site, all laddering up to the system-level physician well-being team. 

“We’re trying to do different, innovative, impactful work by having the combination of the local teams that report into our central team, and it’s really driven innovation,” said Dr. Moline. “It’s been critical to allow each individual ecosystem of a hospital to develop programs that work for their environment while having the support from the larger group.”

This structure enables a two-way exchange of ideas. Local teams can tailor initiatives to their unique sites, while also surfacing programs and best practices that can be rolled out to the system at large. 

“Someone may have a really innovative program at one hospital, and we’ve then made it into a system program,” said Dr. Moline. “Organizationally, that empowers people and coordinates the different well-being activities.”

Not only does this model fuel innovation, but it also creates a sense of ownership among physicians involved in the work, which is an important contributor to engagement and well-being itself. 

Systemwide initiatives

Alongside local efforts, Northwell has tackled major systemwide initiatives to improve physician well-being. Most notably, the organization is in the midst of one of the nation’s largest EHR transitions, with the entire system moving to Epic. 

“A unified EMR will connect inpatient and outpatient encounters and streamline referrals and patient portal interactions,” said Dr. Moline. “It also gives us greater flexibility for the doctors to access multiple devices and locations and figure out what best fits their schedule.”

The EHR transition was directly informed by Northwell Health’s Joy in Medicine journey, which highlighted the significant role that existing EHRs were playing in physician dissatisfaction. Northwell had multiple legacy EHRs, none of which physicians were particularly satisfied with. 

These disjointed EHRs made it difficult for physicians to communicate with one another within the system, and it was nearly impossible to communicate with external health systems. Overall, workflows were inefficient and often frustrating, contributing to stress and burnout. 

Leadership recognized the transition to Epic as both a technical and culture shifting opportunity. It was one that could improve both operational efficiency and physician engagement. To that end, the implementation was intentionally designed as a physician-led effort. 

“We knew we needed to involve the physicians and keep them involved,” said Dr. Moline. 

To ease the transition, the implementation team has developed workflows in the legacy systems that mirror Epic’s functionality as much as possible. This has allowed physicians to begin adapting to the new processes ahead of the full implementation, with a goal of reducing friction and disruption.

By physicians, for physicians

Whether well-being initiatives are systemwide or localized, one of the most important drivers of Northwell’s success has been its physician-led approach.

This philosophy is embedded into the governance structure itself. The physician well-being committee sits within the Medical Group structure rather than with human resources. This structure has given the physician well-being team more relevance and credibility within the organization, according to Dr. Moline. 

“We can send things out and they know it’s coming from me and Dr. Mark Talamini, the executive director of our physician practice, so [our physicians know] it’s not coming from HR.” 

The physician well-being team reports through the Board of Governors, the governing body for physician practice. It is also supported by physician champions across hospital and ambulatory settings. 

“It’s physician to physician, which has been really critical for us,” said Dr. Moline. 

This physician-driven approach even extends to designing key tools like the physician experience survey, which “was co-designed with physician well-being as a central focus,” she said. 

With physician input, this resulted in a survey that was 30% shorter—an important consideration for time-constrained physicians—and more actionable questions that could actually drive change. Physicians helped shaped questions that identified tangible challenges and surfaced meaningful solutions. 

“We needed data that we could act on,” said Dr. Moline.

Survey results are then shared with individual leaders, enabling more targeted action. For example, if a team reports low recognition, leaders will understand that they need to do something within that unit to better recognize excellence among their team.

Leaders also have access to an AI-powered tool that helps translate survey results into action. 

“It has prompts like, ‘Where do I need to focus?’ or ‘What are some suggested techniques?’” Dr. Moline explained. “It makes it easier for folks to use data to drive action.”

This has helped leaders across the system take meaningful steps toward addressing barriers to physician well-being. And that action in itself is a major satisfier for physicians. 

“There is nothing worse than filling out a survey year over year and then nothing happens,” said Dr. Moline. 

To close the loop, the well-being team then communicates outcomes in its dedicated well-being newsletter, which has an impressive 50% open rate among physicians. 

“The newsletter helps us show the doctors how their feedback is being turned into action,” she shared.

Building physician connections

Recognizing that connection and community are essential components of well-being, Northwell has also invested in opportunities for doctors to engage with one another. 

For example, Northwell hosts six Doctor’s Lounge events each year, drawing 250–300 attendees per event. These gatherings provide space for networking, relationship building and informal collaboration among Northwell physicians. 

This year, Dr. Moline noted a shift toward building engagement and attendance among new physicians. 

“We’re asking everyone to bring three to five new Northwell physicians into these groups to give them an opportunity to be engaged and get some new folks into the events,” she said.

Northwell physicians have also launched cultural connection socials, creating affinity groups that represent the diversity of the medical staff. 

“We have East Asian, three different Chinese languages, Russian, South Asian, Greek, Hispanic and Spanish groups,” said Dr. Moline. “There have been five events with almost 300 attendees in 2025 alone.”

These groups foster a sense of belonging and shared identity, while also enhancing patient care. 

“We now have a network of [physicians we can approach] if we have, for example, a Greek patient who wants to speak to a Greek physician,” she said. “Not only are these groups nice for physicians, but it’s also great for our patients.”

Supporting physicians

One of the system’s most impactful initiatives is its well-being grant program, which launched in 2024. The program invites frontline physicians to apply for up to $5,000 to fund local projects that address pain points specific to their practice, department or hospital. 

Interest has been strong, with 43 applications in 2024 and 51 in 2025. In total, Northwell has distributed $30,000 to $40,000 in pilot grants.

One of the pilot programs was to bring in ergonomic workstations for pathologists who were moving into a new facility. After receiving initial funding from the well-being grant, the pathologist who applied for the grant then partnered with the department chair to expand the effort, ensuring all pathologists who wanted an ergonomic workstation could receive one. 

“A $5,000 investment from the well-being funds turned into making sure every pathologist had an opportunity for something that was more than the grant would have covered. It highlighted an issue and made people much happier,” Dr. Moline noted.

The program not only addresses immediate needs but also empowers physicians to drive change within their own environments.

Long-term physician engagement

Northwell’s strategy also reflects a commitment to physicians at every stage of their career, including their transition to retirement. The health system is currently developing a program to support physicians in planning a meaningful and purposeful retirement when they are ready. 

“Twenty-three percent of our docs are over 60 … and we know that to have a purposeful retirement, you need to plan for it,” said Dr. Moline. “We want to provide people with the tools, so they don’t just start thinking about six months before retirement, but to help them begin thinking about it six, eight or 10 years beforehand.”

The program will focus on three core areas: targeted education and workshops, mentorship opportunities, and continued community engagement. This approach goes beyond financial planning to address the emotional and social dimensions of retiring from medicine. 

“Some people really feel the loss of community when they retire, so we want to provide a retiree community for people to partake in and allow them to share their wisdom if they so desire,” Dr. Moline said.