Physician Burnout: Top Causes, and Ways to Fix it

A new KLAS study shows EHR systems are not the cause of burnout, well at least not the sole cause. This statement alone is counterintuitive to what the self-reported pain points are for physicians. In the same survey, physicians, self-reported, top 2 reasons for burnout where; added administrative task, followed by implementation of EHR systems in their clinics. If we look at this at a surface level its easy to conclude that the cause of physician burnout is highly correlated to the use of EHR’s. However, when the survey probed deeper it found that there was very little correlation to EHR satisfaction scores and physician burnout. So, what can we make of this?

To understand exactly what’s causing physician burnout we need to dig a bit deeper and put a few pieces together. First, the KLAS study determined that EHR avoidance was higher the more “complex” the EHR became.

Most of the EHR’s that are seen as “complex” are determined so due to their feature-rich capabilities. Another pain point for physicians was the utilization of CPOE order entry systems. It’s interesting to note that both systems were developed for better consumer oversight and to streamline the healthcare management process. These systems were supposed to make physicians lives easier. However, the opposite effect appears to be true as more and more physicians are jumping ship from hospitals with more complex electronic processes to more simplistic methods of patient management. Also, at Medoptim, what we are finding is when a physician cannot find a hospital with a more simplistic way of doing things they are just retiring early to avoid all the extra hassle. If we simply took all this at face value it would be easy to draw the conclusion that doctors are just tech phobes and don’t like dealing with new software changes. However, this would be omitting a few crucial pieces of the physician burnout puzzle.
Keep in mind the first self-reported reason for burnout amongst physicians was increased administrative burdens. This was more prominent than EHR use, so how does this correlate? Well to understand, what I believe is driving the physician burnout rate, we need to look at the last two pieces of the puzzle not fully discussed in this article.

First, the new patient load associated with the Affordable Healthcare Act and then secondly, the loss of physician autonomy.

The latter of these two can easily be seen through more forced accountability via these new electronic systems, the increase in legal actions against physicians, as well as the crackdown on prescription management. If all of these pieces are added together, I think we get a pretty clear picture that physicians are burning out across America due to a more hostile-micromanaged environment. Physicians are used to operating in an environment where they have reliable face time with patients, the patients then get their orders from the doctor and then report to that doctor with any needed changes. Until recently, the decisions physicians made were from their own experiences and intuitions. At one point that was enough, and people trusted those skill sets and intuitions. Now that landscape has changed and physicians are being asked to see more patients, and in turn, spend less time with them. This is causing physicians to rush diagnosis’s and leading to an increasing loss of trust with physician care. All of this is then spiraling to hospital administrators who are rushing to implement systems that aid in reducing liabilities and take a more managed role in their physicians’ practices. Finally, this is all creating a vicious cycle that then leads to physician frustration, burnout, job abandonment, and retirement. All of which is exacerbating the original issues for other fellow physicians.

To sum it up, Physicians are working longer hours, with more responsibilities, more oversight and less respect/trust for their decisions. This is creating a somewhat hostile work environment. At Medoptim we constantly hear our physician partners echoing these sentiments. Physicians are concerned that they are being forced into seeing more patients while being required to juggle more documentation and administration task and for all this extra effort they feel their reimbursements are on the decline and their general respect level/autonomy is vanishing as hospital systems bear down on physicians more and more. Physicians responses to all these pressures have been moving to hospitals with less administration weight or simply retiring earlier.

Knowing these stress points is important for a burgeoning hospital system because keeping healthy billing and margins alive is only obtainable by retaining top physicians who are willing to work hard, maybe even harder than they would want. So how can a hospital, healthcare network, or local practice retain physicians while avoiding burnout? Honestly, there are a lot of ways. At Medoptim we focus on clinical optimization and the implementation of customized scribe services to attack one leg of the problem.

With Medical scribe services, we reduce some of the administrative burdens by reducing documentation requirements on the physician. This also acts as a buffer for physicians when it comes to reducing the work that is required of them in their EHR. Less time on an EHR reduces stress and increases time with patients. This allows physicians to see more patients and/or get through with their current patients faster, with better interactions. These benefits alone are drastically reducing physicians stress. It is extremely common for us to hear our physician partners saying things like “I can’t imagine practicing without a scribe now.” or “having a medical scribe has increased the time I planned to stay in practice.”, and our personal favorite “I just feel happier with my career and my time now that I have a scribe, I don’t dread clinics like I use too.”.

These are just some of the praises we’ve heard here at Medoptim. Beyond just lip service, we’ve seen revenues increase for virtually all of our providers serviced. We’ve also seen the overall time physicians are spending at work or on administrative task reduced to bearable levels. So, are scribe services the magic bullet to solve the physician shortage and burnout issues? In one word, “no”, absolutely not, but are they drastically helping reduce the issues and increasing physician satisfaction? From what we’ve heard after 7 years in business, with 100’s of providers serviced, and millions of patient interactions documented. Well, In one word, Absolutely.

So, if you are one of the many physicians or hospital systems currently struggling to balance all the task heaped upon you or your physicians try a free consultation with one of our clinical evaluation specialists. Come see how Medoptim can reduce your physician burnout issues, aid in physician retention, and even boost clinical revenue across your physician network. At Medoptim, we look forward to continuing doing our part in helping physicians find a better life balance with more rewarding careers well into the future. Contact us today.