Danger of "Burnout"

According to the Medscape Lifestyle Report 2017: Race and Ethnicity, Bias and Burnout greater than 40% or 2 in 5 physicians are suffering from “Burnout”. The article in graphic form is worth analyzing.

The data in the article presented below should be read and appreciated.

The main data points are:

1. Emergency physicians are at the highest risk (59%)
2. Interestingly, Psychiatry and mental health practitioners were less at risk, but still above 40%. 
3. Major causes were:

• Bureaucracy
• Too many hours
• Alienation
• Computer/Electronic Medical Record Issues (affect 1 - 3)
• Reimbursement issues
• Specter of malpractice

The data can be understood using the legal term res ipsa loquitur Latin for "the thing speaks for itself".  In other words, it does not take deep analytics to see that the practice of medicine is not as fulfilling as it was in the old days.

`What can be done? A common denominator that links all this dissatisfaction is the endless and laborious need to document using computer platforms that are not developed by those who do not understand the issues facing clinicians. Most enterprise systems are heavily weighted to maximize billing effectiveness. The clinical side of these large systems sits on that foundation. Clinical needs are thus generally ignored, unless, of course, they impact cash flow for the clinic or hospital. A good sports car cannot be built using the infrastructure of a battleship. Fix this chronic overwhelming burden and medical practice will become a combination of science and art that would make clinicians happy, and put the fire-hose to the burnout.