An increasing amount of physicians are spending more time at work, seeking secondary jobs and are unsatisfied with patient communication, a recent locumstory.com survey found.
Here are 13 key findings from the survey:
Physicians feel overworked
1. Sixty-five percent of physicians surveyed are more overworked now than when their careers began.
2. Comparatively, only 13 percent of physicians are less overworked than when they started their careers.
3. Twenty-two percent of physicians spend more than an hour per day on paperwork.
Physicians are not satisfied with patient communication
4. When it comes to spending time with patients, 58 percent of respondents said their time with patients has decreased since they started their careers. Another 59 percent want more time with patients.
5. Sixty-two percent of physicians surveyed said they do not want to text with patients and 53 percent said digital communication takes away from patient care.
6. If in-person meetings are not possible, 47 percent of physicians prefer phone communication, 37 percent prefer portal email and 5 percent look to texting or personal emails as a form of patient communication.
Physicians seek work-life balance
7. Thirty-nine percent of physicians surveyed said their organization does not support a work-life balance.
8. Forty-one percent of hospital-based physicians felt their facility did not foster work-life balance, compared to 39 percent of physicians at group practices and 35 percent of physicians at private practices.
Physicians are taking secondary jobs
9. Forty-one percent of physicians surveyed said they are looking for a second job.
10. The top three reasons physicians seek additional employment are because they are experiencing a decrease in primary income (49 percent), supporting a preferred lifestyle (35 percent) and paying off debt (31 percent).
11. Privately practicing physicians (45 percent) are more likely to take on a second job due to a lower primary income than other practice types.
Physicians contemplate leaving medicine
12. Fifty-five percent of physicians surveyed said they contemplated leaving medicine in the past few years.
13. In that sample, 59 percent blamed their wish to leave on excessive paperwork, 62 percent pointed to feeling overworked and 68 percent cited too much time spent entering data into EHRs.
Approximately 1,000 physicians in multiple specialties and practices were surveyed via email in December 2015 by Hanover Research for locumstory.com. The survey can be found at http://www.locumstory.com/physicianworkload/.
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