Burnout among physicians and other health care providers is a growing concern, with many making plans to stop seeing patients within the next few years.
The increasing rates of reported burnout will likely lead to a significant workforce shortage, according to The Commonwealth Fund.
Using data from the 2022 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey of Primary Care Physicians, researchers examined the level of burnout U.S. primary care physicians experience and how it affects their views of their work and the health system. The information is based on the responses of 1,047 U.S. primary care physicians who answered the survey. The research team attributed physicians’ exhaustion to a variety of factors, including demoralization, workload, administrative burden, moral distress, misinformation, and workplace culture.
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Here’s a further look into additional findings:
- More than half of physicians who participated in the survey reported burnout.
- Of those who reported burnout, more than one-third said they plan to stop seeing patients in the next one to three years.
- Physicians with burnout were more likely to feel dissatisfied with practicing medicine (81 percent) than those without burnout (45 percent).
- Physicians with burnout were also more likely to rate the U.S. health system poorly (71 percent) than those without burnout (59 percent).
- Of the physicians with burnout, 39 percent plan to stop seeing patients, compared to 21 percent of physicians without burnout.
- Ninety-five percent of physicians with burnout reported dissatisfaction with work-life balance compared to 65 percent of physicians without burnout.
- Eighty-six percent of physicians with burnout reported dissatisfaction with the amount of time spent per patient.
- Physicians who worked less than 45 hours per week were less likely to report burnout compared to those who worked more hours.
The researchers made several recommendations to address growing burnout among physicians:
For federal and congressional policymakers, they recommend an increased investment in primary care as well as payment reform to improve resources and flexibility.
As for payers, they recommended addressing administrative tasks that pose a burden to physicians, such as streamlined reporting requirements across payers.
Lastly, they suggested health care organization leaders better leverage evidence-based interventions within their practices that can relieve and prevent the burnout physicians and other providers may face, such as technology to minimize administrative tasks and streamlined workloads.