Have you as a physician ever felt ineffective, meaningless, or emotionally exhausted? Have you experienced impaired memory, thoughts of quitting your job, decreased attention, or even physical exhaustion? If you’re experiencing any of these right now, you could very well be experiencing burnout. According to a research article published in The Texas Heart Institute Journal, “Physician burnout is reaching crisis proportions in the United States.” Considering the seriousness of physician burnout and the fact that those in specialties such as family medicine and general internal medicine are at the greatest risk of burnout, it is important to offer solutions to physicians to combat this pressing concern.
What Exactly Is Burnout and How Does It Affect Physicians?
Characterized by a sense of reduced accomplishment, depersonalization, and emotional/physical exhaustion, burnout is a psychological syndrome that can lead to negative and hostile attitudes towards work, themselves, and others. There are three domains of burnout: depersonalization, exhaustion, and low personal achievement. Burnout is often found in ‘helping’ professions such as physicians.
Causes of Burnout
Burnout is often attributed to various factors, including the challenges posed by hard-to-use tools like inefficient EHRs. Some EHR systems have exacerbated issues, hindering patient treatment plans and physicians’ ability to respond effectively to health outcomes due to their design flaws. While physicians rely on EHRs to manage their practices, they require systems that alleviate workload and save time, rather than adding to their burdens. As Dr. Christine Sinsky, the AMA’s vice president of professional satisfaction, highlighted in a 2022 Moving Medicine video update, “physicians don’t leave their careers. They are leaving their inbox.” This underscores the exponential rise in inbox work for physicians, indicating the significant impact of inefficient resources and tools on medical burnout. Therefore, it’s crucial to explore what aspects of conventional EHRs contribute to the problem and how enhancements can be made to provide physicians with the best possible experience.
Consequences of Burnout in Patient and Healthcare
There are many consequences associated with physician burnout in terms of patient care and individual care. This includes but is not limited to:
Patient Care:
- Quality time with patients: With administrative burdens overwhelming physicians, they feel as though they have less time to interact with patients to offer the quality of care they deserve. Clerical work intrudes on the physician’s time with their patients, creating an atmosphere that is stressful, fast-paced, and depersonalized.
- Decision-making: Emotional exhaustion when being overworked could lead to poor decisions or a lack of thorough examination of treatment plans/options for physicians. It can also lead to medical errors and low patient satisfaction. This is backed by a study that found about 9% of physicians who experience burnout are prone to have made one or more medical error(s) in the past three months.
Cost:
- When medical burnout becomes too great to handle, physicians resort to quitting their position to alleviate unpleasant symptoms. This can result in a loss of $50,000 to $1 million in training, recruiting, and hiring a new physician. These costs can further aggravate already costly healthcare interventions and potentially drive higher healthcare costs.
Physician Health:
- Burnout can put physicians at an increased risk of motor vehicle accidents, stress, disruptive behavior, mood disorders, and depression/depressive states. This can also increase the odds of substance abuse, suicide, and suicide ideation. It has been found that the suicide rate in female physicians is 2.27 times more than that of the general population. Similarly, the suicide rate in male physicians is 1.41 times higher than the general population.
Addressing Burnout and EHR Burden
The first steps toward managing burnout in medicine are measuring and addressing it. This includes measuring physician well-being and proactively assessing burdens that they may encounter.
Physicians face significant administrative burdens, a leading cause of burnout. They strive to provide optimal patient care, ensuring accuracy and addressing patient concerns. However, inefficient tools and processes disrupt this care. In the U.S., while policies and regulations are crucial, sufficient time for patient care is equally vital. While most physicians use Electronic Health Records (EHRs), poorly designed systems often exacerbate the problem. According to the AMA, half of a physician’s day is spent on EHRs, with over one-third of patient time devoted to nonclinical tasks. Physicians often spend extra hours before and after clinic hours to manage these tasks. Consequently, administrative burdens emerge as a significant contributor to physician burnout.
What contributes to burnout and decreased satisfaction in physicians regarding some EHRs? There are three common complaints:
Poor design – Many physicians find EHRs not user-friendly, as they store data that is challenging to input, access, and complete simple tasks. The complexity of EHRs makes it hard for physicians to efficiently track and store data.
Maintenance – EHRs demand significant time and effort to train staff effectively, diverting attention from crucial responsibilities. Complicated training processes can lead to frustration and consume valuable clinic resources.
Reduced patient interaction time – Physicians often spend considerable time focused on their computer screens rather than engaging directly with patients. This can result from various factors related to complex EHR systems, detracting from quality patient interactions and leading to fewer meaningful engagements.
Solutions for Physician Burnout
MDLand’s iClinic® EHR offers a solution to these problems. This one-of-a-kind EHR is built with physicians in mind to ensure that it helps alleviate administrative burdens. The certified EHR is designed to reduce time entering data and automating processes while meeting quality payment program requirements, so your focus is on your patients and their care.
MDLand’s iClinic® EHR stands out from standard EHRs primarily because it’s crafted by physicians for physicians. This ensures that common flaws found in other EHR systems are recognized and addressed to limit and reduce unnecessary burdens.
Have more questions about iClinic®? Schedule a demo here