Spotlight: Dr. Matthew Malek, Medical Director of Provider Experience, Thundermist Health Center

Through this pandemic, resources and efforts to support providers have been more important than ever. Matthew Malek, MD, MPH, Medical Director of Provider Experience at Thundermist Health Center will be featured on our December 10 Breakfast of Champions panel, "Addressing Clinician and Clinical Team Well-being During the Pandemic."

As a primary care physician, what unique challenges have primary care teams in RI faced supporting patients this year?

To answer this sort of question, we at Thundermist conduct an annual clinical team wellbeing assessment, in collaboration with the American Medical Association (and you can too! The AMA wellbeing assessment tools are available for free to any practice). This year’s survey results show that 2021 has been a year uniquely filled with staffing challenges and the slow-burn exhaustion of a pandemic that just keeps going.

Why is clinician and clinical team well-being important during this pandemic?

Resilience. A clinical team is more resilient to the stressors of a pandemic when they are working within an organization that maintains a system to support their wellness. Our data at Thundermist, and emerging data across the country, support this conclusion.

What lessons learned at Thundermist in recent months could be applied to other local care teams?

Building out systems that promote workforce wellness must be a core element of each of our practices. At Thundermist we have enjoyed success because we have stepped beyond thinking about wellness as something that is “extra.” We now understand that wellness promotion is core to the success of all the pillars of our organization, including access, equity, people, finance and quality.