Physician Burnout Costs $7,600 Per Employed Doctor Each Year

May 29, 2019 - Physician burnout is negatively impacting doctors and patient care, but a new study recently published in the Annals of Internal Medicine shows that it is also affecting the bottom line.

Researchers from the National University of Singapore, Stanford University, the Mayo Clinic, and the American Medical Association (AMA) found that physician burnout costs the healthcare industry approximately $4.6 billion each year.

At the organizational level, the economic burden of physician burnout is about $7,600 per employed physician, researchers added.

“Together with previous evidence that burnout can effectively be reduced with moderate levels of investment, these findings suggest substantial economic value for policy and organizational expenditures for burnout reduction programs for physicians,” they wrote in the study.

A highly-cited 2018 study defines physician burnout as “a long-term stress reaction characterized by depersonalization, including cynical or negative attitudes toward patients, emotional exhaustion, a feeling of decreased personal achievement, and a lack of empathy for patients.”

With 78 percent of physicians experiencing burnout according to the Physicians Foundation 2018 annual survey of practicing doctors, there is no doubt that the stress of being a physician in the current healthcare environment is negatively impacting clinical care.

“Physicians find practicing medicine harder than ever because it is harder than ever,” Edward Ellison, MD, executive medical director and chairman of the Southern California Permanente Medical Group, wrote in an editorial published alongside the Annals of Internal Medicine study. “Nearly everything a physician does in 2019 is monitored, rated, assessed, and reported. The electronic health record has many benefits but it can also be a burden, adding substantially to the time physicians spend in front of a computer screen while robbing them of what brings them joy: spending time with their patients.”

But the new study adds another layer to the healthcare industry’s physician burnout problem. Not only is the long-term stress of being a physician detracting from patient care, it is also hitting providers financially.

Researchers developed a mathematical model using recently published research findings and industry reports to determine just how much physician burnout is costing the healthcare industry. On a national scale, researchers pegged physician burnout to cost between $2.6 billion to $6.3 billion on a national scale and between $3,700 to $11,000 per physician at the organizational level.

But the estimates are conservative, researchers emphasized.

The mathematical model looked at several factors related to physician burnout, including physician turnover and reduced clinical hours. However, other factors like malpractice lawsuits and lower care quality could also impact the economic burden of physician burnout. Unfortunately, those factors are hard to quantify.

Despite their conservative estimates, researchers still identified physician burnout costs lower than previous studies.

One 2018 analysis from the National Taskforce for Humanity in Healthcare (NTH) found that hospitals and health systems are losing up to $1.7 billion a year on employed physicians because of burnout. The task force based its estimate on physician turnover, which costs two to three times a physician’s annual salary once recruitment, onboarding, and lost patient care revenue are accounted for.

Reducing physician burnout is key for improving hospital profitability and care quality. To help healthcare organizations address physician burnout, the AMA suggests the following steps:

• Establish wellness as a quality indicator
• Launch a wellness committee and/or select a wellness champion
• Conduct an annual wellness survey every year
• Meet regularly with leaders and/or team members to go over data and develop interventions to promote physician well-being
• Implement physician well-being interventions and refine programs based on new survey data

“Physician stress and burnout can have a significant impact on the quality of care delivered to patients, organizational productivity, morale, and costs. You can take corrective action early by identifying sources of stress and developing interventional approaches that will help your organization reduce burnout and promote the well-being of all practitioners,” the AMA says.