We need to keep our doctors healthy
That trend could lead to lower care satisfaction and
increased spending for patients, as well as have substantial financial
consequences for health care organizations, according to a research letter published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
For the cross-sectional analysis, researchers led by a team
from Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City examined survey responses
from 19,929 family physicians collected from 2016 to 2020 American Board of
Family Medicine surveys and used Medicare data to track whether physicians
later switched practices or left medicine.
When physicians reported “I feel burned out from my work” or
“I have become more callous toward people” at least once a week, the
researchers defined them as experiencing burnout.
Burnout more common in women, younger docs
Overall, 43.5% of family physicians reported burnout. Those
physicians were more likely to either change practices or stop practicing
medicine altogether in the following year compared with those who did not
report burnout.
Specifically, 4.8% of physicians with burnout switched
practices, compared with 3.4% of those without burnout, while 5.4% left
practice entirely. versus 3.7% of their non-burned-out peers. Burnout was
more commonly reported among physicians younger than 55 years, those employed
in nonrural areas, and among women.
The findings suggest that burnout may play a meaningful role
in workforce turnover and in physicians leaving clinical practice altogether.
Previous research has
suggested that losing a primary care physician can disrupt continuity of
care, worsen a
patient’s experience of care, and increase emergency department use. It can
also drive up costs for patients and health care organizations.
Physician burnout ‘warrants sustained attention’
To the best of the researchers’ knowledge, this is the first
national-level analysis to look at the relationship between burnout and
turnover among family physicians. And while the study can’t establish causality
and the design had some limitations, including the use of surveys that preceded
the COVID pandemic, the findings are consistent with previous estimates linking
physician burnout and turnover rates.
“These findings suggest that physician burnout warrants
sustained attention, not only because of its adverse relationship with
professional well-being and patient safety but also because it compromises the
physician workforce stability,” the authors write.
These findings highlight the urgent need to address work
conditions and professional satisfaction.
“These findings highlight the urgent need to address work
conditions and professional satisfaction for both the stability of the
physician workforce and the well-being of patients,” said Dhruv Khullar,
MD, associate professor of population health sciences at Weill Cornell
Medicine and first author of the study, in a Weill Cornell Medicine news release.