Tag: Physician Burnout

The American Medical Association strives to promote “the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health.” Each year, the AMA reports on physician burnout, describing it as “a major issue that continues to affect doctors and cost the U.S. health care system.” This year, the AMA drew statistics from the Medscape survey National Physician Burnout, Depression & Suicide Report 2019. The recent survey found an overall physician burnout rate of 44% with 15% of the survey participants reporting depression. In 2018 the Medscape survey listed critical care, neurology, family medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, internal medicine and emergency medicine at the top of the list. In 2019, the survey showed the highest percentage of physician burnout occurring among these specialties:

Urology: 54 percent.

Neurology: 53 percent.

Physical medicine and rehabilitation: 52 percent.

Internal medicine: 49 percent.

Emergency medicine: 48 percent.

Family medicine: 48 percent.

A recent paper by the Massachusetts Medical Society, Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Harvard Global Health Institute, has documented widespread physician burnout. ”Burnout is a syndrome involving one or more of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and diminished sense of personal accomplishment.” How does clinician burnout affect patients? The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in Rockville, MD, puts it this way:

Burnout can also threaten patient safety and care quality when depersonalization leads to poor interactions with patients and when burned-out physicians suffer from impaired attention, memory, and executive function. The threat to patient safety and medical care quality has reached the level of a public health crisis.

Clinician burnout may result in medical care that does not meet the reasonable standard of care.  Contact Elite Medical Experts Strategy Team to secure a leading university expert hand-selected to fit the fact pattern in your medical malpractice case.

The Massachusetts Medical Society published A Crisis in Health Care: A Call to Action on Physician Burnout on January 17, 2019. The report describes burnout as “a syndrome involving one or more of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and a diminished sense of personal accomplishment.” President of the Massachusetts Medical Society Alain Chaoui, MD, FAAFP, writes: “The issue of burnout is something we take incredibly seriously because physician wellbeing is linked to providing quality care and favorable outcomes for our patients.” The report is a result of collaboration between the Massachusetts Medical Society, the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the Harvard Global Health Institute.

Also in January 2019, Medscape released National Physician Burnout, Depression & Suicide Report 2019. The online survey compiled input from 15,069  U.S. physicians practicing in more than twenty-nine specialties. Medscape research shows that some medical specialties now have burnout rates above 50%.

Responses to the survey indicate that 44% of physicians meet the criteria for burnout, up from 42% in last year’s report. In addition, 11% are colloquially depressed (feeling down or sad), and 4% are clinically depressed. The responses show that 14% of physicians have had thoughts of suicide but have not attempted it, and 6% said they preferred not to answer. Survey authors note that one physician a day dies by suicide, the highest rate of any profession. According to this survey, 1% of physicians have attempted it.

Top-ranked answers to the survey question “What contributes most to your burnout?” were:

Too many bureaucratic tasks (e.g. charting and paperwork)

Spending too many hours at work

Increasing computerization of practice

Lack of respect from administrators/employers, colleagues or staff

Physician burnout has become a public health issue. Yet the Medscape survey found that only 13% of physicians are currently seeking professional help for burnout or depression.  When doctors are not able to rest and recover during their time off, job burnout takes its toll. Unfortunately, one of the complications of this exhaustion is an increase in medical errors which may lead to medical malpractice lawsuits. In the event of a malpractice suit, the most valuable asset on the legal team can often be the experienced medical expert witness. Contact Elite Medical Experts to discuss your case and secure a leading university healthcare expert.