New research by experts at the American Medical Association and the Mayo Clinic regarding the professional satisfaction of US physicians suggests burnout, dissatisfaction with electronic health records, and challenges with work-life integration could cause physicians to leave the workforce and profoundly affect the projected shortage of US physicians.

Key takeaways:

• Roughly one in five physicians intend to reduce clinical work hours in the next year.
• One in 50 physicians intends to leave medicine for a different career entirely in the next two years.
• Dissatisfaction with work-life integration and dissatisfaction with the electronic health record systems was also a contributing factor.

Physicians are burned out

The study’s authors highlight a correlation between the career plans of physicians and the growing problem of burnout, technological dissatisfaction and administrative fatigue among physicians.

Physicians who were burned out, dissatisfied with work-life integration, and dissatisfied with electronic health records were more likely to intend to reduce clinical work in the next 12 months. Burnout is the largest factor influencing physicians who intend to leave medicine in the next two years; mounting obstacles to patients’ care have been contributing to emotional fatigue and loss of enthusiasm and may foreshadow a crisis in the American healthcare system.

Attrition in the physician workforce results in diminished access to care for patients.

If just 30 percent of physicians follow through on their intention to leave medicine in the next two years, the study estimates approximately 4,759 physicians would leave the workforce – a loss roughly equivalent to eliminating the graduating classes of 19 U.S. medical schools in each of the next two years.

Help is on the way…
In response to the ongoing problem of physician burn out, and the concern that more doctors will leave the industry that can be replaced, The American Medical Association has developed resources and tools to help physicians and health leaders learn their risk factors for burnout and adopt medical practice solutions to reignite professional fulfillment.

One free online module – Preventing Physician Burnout – provides 7 steps to help prevent burn out any medical practice can implement, a ten-item survey designed to assist you in assessing burnout, and real-life examples of successful burnout prevention programs in a variety of practice settings.

What does this mean for your practice?