Physician Burnout

Recently, the American Medical Association released the results of their AMA national physician comparison report on physician burnout. The survey was an update to last year’s report. This year, the survey included 12,400 physician responses representing 81 health systems across 31 states. The results showed some interesting findings.

The Good

• The percentage of physicians experiencing at least one symptom of burnout decreased from 53% in 2022 to 48% in 2023.
• All 6 physician specialties with the highest burnout rates showed a decrease in 2023 compared to 2022.

Emergency Medicine	62% → 56.5%
Internal Medicine	52% → 51.4%
Obstetrics and Gynecology	54% → 51.2%
Family Medicine	58% → 51%
Pediatrics	55% → 46.9%
Hospital Medicine	59% → 44%

The Bad

• Despite the reported improvement, the changes were small.
• Emergency Medicine remains at the top of the list of specialties with the highest physician burnout rates, with 56.5% of participants reporting at least one symptom in 2023.

Solutions

All of us have heard the pleas for better self care. Certainly self care is extremely important and is one cog in the wheel. But it isn’t the ultimate solution. It can provide resilience and allow physicians to weather the tides of job-related ‘stress,’ but self-care will not improve the work environment.

The AMA article includes some important suggestions for how to improve the work environment to prevent job stress from becoming intolerable. Some of the examples included:

• Forming a well-being committee focused on making real changes to improve workflow. One of the primary methods of accomplishing this task is correcting EHR inefficiencies and making the informatics team accountable to the well-being committee.
• Reducing administrative burden by using improvements in technology, like virtual scribes for patient encounters or artificial intelligence to handle physician portal messages. There is even an example of AI assisted after-hours triage to help patients determine when they need to seek care urgently or schedule an appointment.
• Continuous communication that is honest and ongoing with physicians and other clinical staff regarding the status of requests, the likelihood of completion, and the existence of alternative solutions. All too often we hear “it’s on the list” with no updates regarding the process of accomplishing the task. Organizations that take this step seriously have found it easier to obtain physician and clinician input.

It is not easy, and it isn’t fast. But even the smallest of improvements provides momentum for the bigger changes that need to occur. Take a look at your organization and see if these three important tenets are being implemented correctly.

For more:

• EMplify Podcast – Action is the Antidote for Rumination
• EMplify Podcast – Career Longevity
• EMplify Podcast – Career Disillusionment
• EMplify Podcast – Cognitive Reframing
• AMA Burnout Falls But Still Hits These 6 Physicain Specialties Most
• AMA Practice Transformation: Measure
• AMA Joy in Medicine Health System Recognition Program