Report In just 3 years, physician burnout increased from 45.5 percent to 54.4 percent

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (www.ucr.edu/) — In just three years, physician burnout increased from 45.5 percent to 54.4 percent, according to a paper authored by doctors at the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine.

“Doctors aren’t depressed or less content at home,” write coauthors Drs. Andrew G. Alexander and Kenneth A. Ballou in the August 2018 issue of the American Journal of Medicine. “They’re less happy at work.”

Alexander, an associate clinical professor of family medicine, and Ballou, an assistant clinical professor of family medicine, list three factors that contribute to physician burnout:

• The doctor-patient relationship has been morphed into an insurance company-client relationship that imposes limitations upon the treatment doctors can provide to the insurance company’s members.
• Feelings of cynicism (resulting from patients no longer expecting continuity of care and routinely changing doctors).
• Lack of enthusiasm for work.

Alexander and Ballou compared data from 2011-14 on physician burnout and satisfaction with work-life balance to arrive at their conclusions. They found that physician burnout measures highest in emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, and pediatrics. They also posit that five transformational medical practice events that occurred between 2011 and 2014 contributed to the increase in physician burnout.



Read more here. (University of California, Riverside)