“While burnout manifest in individuals, it originates in systems.” – Christine Sinsky, MD
On a recent Tim Ferriss podcast, fantasy author Brandon Sanderson—who writes an incredible 300,000 to 400,000 words a year—shared how he built a company designed to let him do what he does best: write.
Every aspect of his business is structured to eliminate distractions and maximize his creative output. He has a team that handles everything outside of writing—marketing, publishing, logistics—so he can stay in his creative flow or as he says, “let Brandon cook.”
Cal Newport, a well-known productivity expert, was so intrigued by this concept that he dedicated an entire podcast episode to it. Exploring a simple yet profound question:
👉 Why do companies burden their most productive employees with non-essential tasks that pull them away from their core work?
This got me thinking—shouldn’t healthcare systems do the same for their providers?
The Healthcare Provider’s Role: Chef or Busboy?
The vast majority of healthcare revenue stems from providers—whether through patient visits, ordering studies, performing procedures, or delivering other services. And yet, over the years, layers of bureaucracy, policies, and technology have made providers less like chefs and more like waitstaff, busboys, and managers—handling work that is inefficient, unfulfilling, and not the reason they entered medicine.
If we want providers to be at their best, we must let them cook. Instead, too many are bogged down by:
✅ Inefficient electronic medical records (EMRs)
✅ A flood of patient messages
✅ Endless refill requests
✅ Pointless Meetings
✅ Prior authorizations
✅ Coding and excessive documentation
The result? Frustrated providers, reduced productivity, and ultimately, a struggling healthcare system.
The Cost of Administrative Overload
Every hour spent on non-clinical work is an hour taken away from patient care. Studies show that physicians and advanced practice providers spend twice as much time on administrative work as they do with patients.
This inefficiency leads to:
🔹 Provider burnout: When clinicians spend more time battling administrative tasks than practicing medicine, their job satisfaction plummets.
🔹 Reduced patient access: Overloaded providers see fewer patients, increasing wait times and limiting access to care.
🔹 Higher turnover: Burned-out providers are leaving the profession at alarming rates, creating staffing shortages and worsening the healthcare crisis.
If a chef quits, the restaurant suffers. If providers burn out, patient care suffers.
A Better Way: Free Providers to Do What They Do Best
What if healthcare organizations were structured like Sanderson’s company—designed to let providers focus on patient care instead of drowning in administrative minutiae?
Here are a few ways healthcare leaders can help providers get back in the kitchen:
🔹 Improve EMR efficiency: Invest in better technology, AI-driven automation, and streamlined workflows.
🔹 Delegate administrative tasks: Use medical scribes, support staff, and automation to handle non-clinical work.
🔹 Fix the message overload: Implement smarter triage systems to prevent message fatigue.
🔹 Reduce prior authorization burdens: Advocate for policy changes and streamlined approvals.
🔹 Emphasize provider well-being: Ensure workloads are sustainable and that clinicians feel supported.
The more we free providers to “cook,” the better care patients receive—and the less likely we are to lose our best chefs.
Final Thoughts
The healthcare system needs to shift its mindset. Instead of asking, “How much more can we add to providers’ plates?” we should be asking, “How do we clear their plates so they can focus on patient care?”
If we don’t, we risk a system where the best chefs leave the kitchen—and the entire restaurant suffers.
Let’s fix this. Let’s let providers cook.
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