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History of Upstate Well as of April, 2025

The Wellbeing Task Force (formerly Faculty Burn-out Task Force) was organized and charged in late 2016, and its first meeting was held in January 2017. Members included:

  • Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Faculty Development
  • Director of Employee/Student Health
  • Chair of Medicine
  • Associate Dean for GME
  • University Hospital Chief Medical Officer
  • Director of Integrative Medicine

Initial discussions centered on findings from the Faculty Forward survey and a decision was made to start by focusing on wellbeing in physicians.

Potential goals discussed at first meeting included:

  • A “Clinical Collaboration” space to allow faculty to meet and collaborate informally and build community and connectedness
  • Annual self-assessment of burnout, depression, anxiety etc.
  • Get wellness into medical school curriculum
  • Peer support groups (e.g. Balint)

This group formulated 4 distinct goals:

  1. Obtain funding to:
    • purchase access to and disseminate the Mayo Well-Being Index, a well-developed tool that allows self-assessment of burnout and distress, comparisons to national peer data, and access to a well-organized compendium of wellbeing resources (e.g., videos, readings, website links). 
    • make the WBI available to all Upstaters i.e., physicians, nurses, residents/fellows, students and other employees.
  2. Obtain voice recognition software for the electronic medical record.
  3. Create a dedicated space where providers could meet and interact for collaboration, support, relaxation and a sense of community (Clinical Collaboration Center, C3, the “CUBE”)
  4. Create the new position of Chief Wellness Officer with appropriate support from Administration

The group met 12 times over 3.5 years, and slowly worked towards these goals.

Eventually, all 4 were met:

  1. The Mayo Wellbeing Index was purchased and first offered to everyone at Upstate in February 2018. It has been available since then, with active outreach to encourage its use by each individual at least twice per year. The data from the use of the WBI has also been analyzed regularly to assess most requested resources.
  2. Voice recognition software was made available to all practitioners in June 2020.
  3. The CUBE space was pledged, identified and renovated, and opened for use in September 2020.
  4. A Chief Wellness Officer was appointed in October 2020. In addition, a new role for students and residents, under the Dean of the Norton College of Medicine, was created, the Assistant Dean for Wellness early in 2020.

After appointment of the CWO, the Wellbeing Task Force members felt that it had achieved its objectives as a Task Force and could disband. The members were then invited by the newly-appointed CWO to continue as the “Wellbeing Council,” advisory to the CWO. They agreed, and the group was expanded.

Current membership consists of

  • CMO, Executive Sponsor
  • CWO, facilitator
  • Associate CWO
  • Assistant Dean for Wellness
  • Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Faculty Development
  • Director of Employee/Student Health
  • Associate Dean for GME
  • Upstate Well Program Coordinator
  • Upstate Well Administrative Coordinator
  • Clinical representatives from numerous sectors throughout the hospital
  • Physicians (faculty as well as Medical Staff members)
  • Nursing Staff
  • Anyone interested may join this group which meets monthly, virtually

This group now numbers well over 150 members and is open to anyone in the Upstate community who interested, including residents and students.

When reformatted in 2020, the Council adopted 3 new goals for remainder of 2020/2021:

  • Choose a valid and reliable tool for measuring burnout among medical staff specifically. Administer as baseline for CWO effectiveness in future measurements. To be repeated at 6-12-month intervals.
    • MiniZ was chosen and was administered for the first time in October/November 2020 as part of the KLAS/Arch Collaborative EHR Satisfaction survey. The KLAS Arch Collaborative Survey has since been administered annually through 2023, adding residents and fellows in 2022 and nursing staff in 2023.
    • In 2024, the AMA Organizational Biopsy, which includes the MiniZ, was added for the first time. In future years, this instrument will alternate wityh the KLAS/Arch Collaborative survey on an annual basis each spring.
  • Further develop current, and explore new, initiatives that meet the requirements needed to achieve AMA Joy in Medicine award
    • Bronze Recognition awarded in 2021
    • Silver Recognition awarded in 2023
    • Gold Recognition anticipated 2026
  • Accomplish one anti-racist activity or goal – choose from among many which will be suggested in upcoming report from new Chief Diversity Officer Task Force (final report came out in early 2021)
    • Recommendation made to clinical and IT teams that MyChart at the Bedside, which requires an iPad or smartphone for every patient, not be rolled out beyond pilot until we can provide iPads for every patient in every bed so as not to advantage those who have personal devices over those who do not have personal devices. We need 370 additional iPads, fundraising strategies in development

Additional problems, projects and proposals are discussed and acted upon as they arise during monthly meetings of the group.

In 2021, Upstate received recognition with a Bronze Award from the AMA Joy in Medicine Program

In 2022, an Executive Council was formed, consisting of the CWO, Associate CWO, nursing representative, Program Coordinator, a chair of an academic department in the COM, Director of E/SH, Community Hospital representative, a hospital officer, and a mental health specialist. This body meets bimonthly to inform major decisions and program directions.

In 2023, mission, vision and strategic plan for Upstate Well were developed and approved by hospital leadership. Taskforces were formed to begin work on the short-term and long-term goals of each pillar in the strategi plan.

Also in 2023, an Associate Chief Wellness Officer was added to the team. Upstate received recognition at the Silver level from the AMA Joy in Medicine Program.

In 2024, all wellness and wellbeing activities were consolidated under the umbrella of Upstate Well which coordinates with projects and programs in other departments, such as Spiritual Care, ESH, Social Work, Cancer Center, IMT and others. See attached for current list.

The hospital officers agreed to appoint Upstate Well representatives from all sectors (currently 12) to allow expansion of programs and projects beyond clinical staff. The first AMA Organizational Biopsy survey was completed.

In 2024, additional staff positions were approved to add a specialist in Internal Communications and Engagement (on board as of December 2024) as well as a full-time administrative coordinator (on board as of January 2025).

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