Physician burnout can lead to poor clinical care, an increase in medical mistakes, physician turnover and even suicide. The cost of physician turnover and reduced clinical hours as a result of it is estimated to cost $4.6 billion each year, the study said.
Researchers surveyed 25,000 physicians representing 200 healthcare organizations on burnout, collecting responses from 2018 through June 2020.
Six key findings:
- The specialties with the highest levels of burnout were family medicine (34 percent) and hematology/oncology (33 percent).
- The specialties with the lowest rates of physician burnout were psychiatry (22 percent) and anesthesiology (24 percent).
- Sixty percent of hematologists and oncologists said they spent more than six hours a week in after-hours EHR charting, followed by pulmonologists (56 percent).
- Only 12 percent of radiologists said they spend six or more hours charting in the EHR after hours, followed by anesthesiologists (14 percent).
- Fifty-four percent of hospital medicine physicians reported having organizational EHR support, followed by 50 percent of pediatricians.
- Hematologists/oncologists and radiologists felt the least amount of organizational EHR support, with only 35 percent reporting feeling supported.
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