Page 10 - Delaware Medical Journal - July 2016

PRESIDENT’S PAGE
According to US News and World Report,2 “Doctors are 15 times more likely to burnout than professionals in any other line of work.” In the December 17, 2015 AMA Wire,9 burnout topped the list at #1 of the topics that struck a nerve with physicians in 2015. And it’s not just the AMA talking about this issue. Medscape10 reported in Physician Burnout: It Just Keeps Getting Worse, that rates of physician burnout in their Medscape Physician Life Style Report was 46 percent in 2015 vs. 40 percent in
2013. The highest rates were in critical care (53 percent) and emergency medicine (52 percent), similar to the Mayo Clinic rankings.
Again, primary care specialties, internists and family physicians, showed rates of burnout of 50 percent. That statistically and practically
is a lot of physicians. It is alarming to see the trends growing. These same specialties show the lowest rates of happiness at work. It seems my colleagues in ophthalmology and those
in dermatology are some of the happiest. However, from my personal communications with others, that is not always saying much. From these statistics we sound like a rather unhappy lot! However, do not just assume this affects only those of us in practice. It also affects our medical students and residents too. Apparently, 50 percent of medical students and 27 to 75 percent of residents experience burnout during their education — it even affects our young.1
REFERENCES
1. Drummond D. Physician burnout: Why it is not a fair fight. The Happy MD. Available at: www.thehappymd.com/blog/bid/295048/ Physician-Burnout-Why-its-not-a-Fair-Fight.
2. Sifferlin A. Burnout in the hospital: Why doctors are set up for stress. Time. July 21, 2014. Available at: time.com/3004782/ burnout-in-the-hospital-why-doctors-are-set- up-for-stress/.
3. Cox E. Doctor burnout, stress and depression: Not an easy fix. US News and World Report. Apr. 12, 2016. Available at: health.usnews.com/health-news/patient- advice/articles/2016-04-12/doctor-burnout- stress-and-depression-not-an-easy-fix.
4. AMA Wire. Available at: http://www.ama- assn.org/ama/ama-wire.page. Search
So now we know that this is an increasingly prevalent problem for the physician and it can our professionalism and the quality care
we provide to our patients.1 It can certainly increase medical errors and malpractice rates; lower patient compliance and patient satisfaction; and increase rates of substance abuse, suicide, and intent to leave practice.1
Physician burnout has implications far beyond our own sphere, and reaches far into our communities. It even has implications
for increasing health care costs and the implications for the bottom line of our health care institutions. As the saying goes, “If momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy,” and if the physician ain’t happy...
The Mayo Clinic study11,12 showed that physicians who were experiencing burnout were likely to decrease their work hours in
the next year. These were primarily older, seasoned physicians, not necessarily our younger colleagues. This trend could have serious effects on the predicted workforce shortages. This is at a time when we have increasing patient numbers after the ACA increased the number of newly insured and as our baby boomer population matures. It would certainly behoove our policy makers to take a burdensome, frequently changing policies

The Medscape study10 further states that
the number one reason physicians gave as a cause for burnout was too many beaucratic tasks followed by too many hours worked. In were increasing computerization and the impact of the ACA. There have been a lot of mandated changes over the last few years that are out of our control, but they are taking a major toll and removing what we do best and what we want to do — provide quality care to our patients. So you see the irony here.
Since I have run out of space and I think this issue deserves further exploration, I will have more for you in next month’s president’s page on this.
In the meantime, watch for more information on MSD’s new program, “Time to Recharge,” a multidimensional program geared to provide our members with tools and information to survive and thrive in this
Dorothy M. Moore, M.D.
President, Medical Society of Delaware
specialties-highest-burnout-rates.
9. Burnout tops physician issues in 2015. AMA
Wire. Dec. 17, 2015. Available at: www.ama-assn.org/ama/ama-wire/post/ burnout-tops-physician-issues-2015.
10. Peckman C. Physician burnout: It just keeps getting worse. Medscape. Jan. 26, 2015. Available at: www.medscape.com/ viewarticle/838437.
11. Burnout driving physicians to cut down work hours. AMA Wire. May 6, 2016. Available at: www.ama-assn.org/ama/ama-wire/post/ burnout-tied-fewer-physician-work-hours.
12. Shanfelt TD, Mungo M, Schmitgen J.
et al. Longitudinal study evaluating the association between physician burnout and changes in professional work effort.
Mayo Clin Proc. 2016;91:422-431.
5.
6.
7.
“physician burnout.”
Rosenstein AH. Physician stress and burnout:
Prevalence, cause, and effect. American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Available at : www.aaos.org/AAOSNow/2012/Aug/ managing/managing4.
Drummond D. Physician burnout: Its origin, symptoms, and five main causes. Fam. Pract. Manage. 2015;22:42-47. Available at: www.aafp.org/fpm/2015/0900/p42.html.
Shanfelt TD, Hasan O, Dyrbye LN, et al. Changes in burnout and satisfaction with work-life balance in physicians ant the general working population between 2011 and 2016. Mayo Clin Proc. 2015;90:1600-1613.
8. Specialties with the highest burnout rates. AMA Wire. Jan. 15, 2016. Available at: www.ama-assn.org/ama/ama-wire/post/
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Del Med J | July 2016 | Vol. 88 | No. 7