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Electronics and physician burnout

anxiety

The editors of Physicians Practice write:

“The idea that physicians are burned out isn’t news, it’s an accepted fact. What’s happening now is researchers and other industry observers are trying to figure out why they’re burned out.”

“…. In conjunction with the AMA, the Mayo Clinic researchers surveyed more than 6,500 physicians to evaluate the various reasons for physician burnout, as well as the effects of digitizing medical practice. Needless to say, researchers found a direct link between burnout and usage of the EHR and computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems.

“Electronic health records hold great promise for enhancing coordination of care and improving quality of care. In their current form and implementation, however, they have had a number of unintended negative consequences including reducing efficiency, increasing clerical burden, and increasing the risk of burnout for physicians,” Tait Shanafelt, M.D., Mayo Clinic physician and lead author of the study, said.”

”The results varied by specialty, with family medicine physicians, urologists, otolaryngologists and neurologists being affected the most. Yet, it’s clear from reading about the study that most physicians are feeling the crush of clerical burden related to EHR and CPOE systems.”

To read the whole article, please hit this link.


The science of physician burnout

burnout

 

The Mayo Clinic has developed a science of physician burnout.

One of Mayo’s (perhaps surprising to some) findings  is that younger and older physicians suffer less burnout  than mid-career ones. The young ones have not become tied to older, fee-for-service forms of practice and many older ones have started to cut back hours and have the pleasant prospect of retirement coming soon.

The middle ones, however, must deal with the stress of changing to fee-for-value systems and dealing with workplaces that have become more regulated, bureaucratic and bottom-line focused, with an expanded menu of metrics to measure their performance.

It’s  clear that increasing administrative, financial and other pressures are  probably putting more pressure on doctors of all ages than ever before. They need all the help they can get to deal with it.


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