Reducing burnout and improving resilience in community health centers
Official title: Understanding and Addressing Community Health Center Burden, Resiliency, and Burnout - Systems Engineering Analyses and Approaches
Funded at Northeastern University · NIH-11193976 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project tries systems changes to cut work burden and burnout for doctors, nurses, and staff at community health centers.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Northeastern University NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Boston, United States) |
| Project start | September 30, 2024 |
| Project end | July 31, 2029 |
| Funding year | 2025 |
| Award (this year) | $400,000 |
| NIH project number | 5R01HS030271-02 |
| Project ID | NIH-11193976 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Patients served by participating community health centers—especially those in underserved communities—would be the most likely to see benefits, though most direct participants will be clinic staff and administrators.
✕Less likely to help
Patients who receive care only outside community health centers or whose care is unaffected by clinic workflows are unlikely to directly benefit from this project.
What this research studies
If your community health center takes part, researchers will map clinic workflows and technology use (like patient portals and EHR messages) to find time sinks and failure points. They will apply systems engineering methods to redesign processes, improve staffing resilience, and pilot workflow changes. The work will likely include surveys, time-and-motion data, and iterative tests of new procedures at participating clinics. The goal is practical fixes that make clinics run smoother so staff can focus more on patient care.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, patients could receive more reliable, timely, and safer care as clinic staff face less burnout and systems become more resilient.
How similar studies have gone: Previous workflow redesign and systems-engineering efforts have shown promising improvements in efficiency and staff satisfaction, but large-scale burnout reduction across diverse clinics remains incompletely proven.
Where this research is happening
-
Northeastern University
Boston, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Benneyan, James C — Northeastern University
- Study coordinator: Benneyan, James C
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.