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The medical world is a fast-paced one and it’s constantly evolving to provide better treatments to patients and make things easier for them. There are a lot of administrative and medical professionals in the field itself who make things easier and seamless. One of the most important people in this area is a physician. They have demanding work schedules and have to constantly deal with a lot of work pressure. Their busy life and acute time pressure often put them at risk of suffering from a ‘physician’s burnout’. It is important to understand that the physician burnout that they experience not only affects the quality of their work but also affects the quality of patient care they provide which is not something that must be overlooked.
In a survey that was done among over 15,000 doctors in the US, it was reported that 42% out of the total doctors felt burnout. In order to diminish physician burnout in the United States, 39% of doctors suggested that they have fewer hours to work while 56% of the doctors suggested having to deal with lesser administrative tasks. Moreover, there were others from the survey who also suggested getting b
What Is a Physician’s Burnout?
In order to understand the causes of physician burnout, it is important to understand what it is exactly in the first place. Burnout refers to the state where chronic stress leads the way to emotional exhaustion, physical exhaustion, feelings of ineffectiveness and detachment along with the feeling of not having achieved enough. When this occurs, medical professionals have problems connecting with their patients which is dangerous, to say the least. They lose their faith in having proper skills as a doctor. This condition often results in cynicism and having a negative perspective towards their professional and personal life.
Causes Of Physician Burnout
There are quite a few reasons that could lead to physician burnout. Here are the most common ones;
- Completion of too many bureaucratic tasks: The majority of the doctors should not focus on the administrative tasks instead they should be taking care of their patients. However, one of the main causes of physician burnout is the fact that the majority of the administrative tasks such as paperwork or charting are imposed upon the physicians.
- Not enough time with their patients: As doctors spend their neck buried deep into work, where the majority of it includes administrative work, they often get less time to spend with their patients. Doctors find the time that they spend with their patients to be the most rewarding aspect of their job, and when they do not get enough of it, oftentimes it leads to physician burnout.
- Overburdened with work: Work weeks that tend to stretch very long often make them feel burnout, depressed and detached from their work. In the US alone it was seen that the majority of the physicians were working at least 60 hours or more in a week making them feel burnt out.
- Ever-growing demand of patients: Patients always expect the very best from their doctors and care providers. Over time it has been seen that a number of patients nowadays tend to have a lot more demands from the physicians than before. This escalation in demands has posed a new challenge to physicians.
Online reputation: When going for the right kind of healthcare provider, 70% of people tend to go for someone who has a positive reputation online. In this technological era, having a positive online reputation is of prime importance in order to bring in more patients. This is why they tend to always worry about how they will be reviewed online by their patients.
Ways To Mitigate Physician Burnout
Now that the reason for physician burnout is clear, it is important to move on to the different ways to mitigate them.
- Being a part of EHR training: Physicians tend to become frustrated when it comes to the implementation of EHR along with the health IT modules that bring about changes in the workflow of the hospital. Medical billing companies oftentimes tend to resort to this method since it helps medical organizations in a number of different ways. Moreover, EHR has been one of the most sorted out methods when it comes to medical billing solutions since it helps in lessening the number of burdensome tasks physicians have to take care of. This allows medical caregivers to focus more on their patients and enjoy their essence of work.
- Hiring a medical scribe: Medical professionals are oftentimes enforced with too much work one of them being spending too much time on electronic health records. Copying medical notes takes time and is a burdensome task. Medical billing outsourcing services provide medical organizations with a scribe who can work out the intricacies of data entry. Data entry is a time-consuming job that can lead to physician’s burnout. Therefore, hiring a medical scribe through an outsourcing company will increase the overall productivity.
- Spend time with friends and family: Physician burnout can make them withdraw themselves from their close family and friends and isolate themselves. It is important to engage in social contact since it helps in relieving stress and calms down the overall nervousness you might be feeling.
- Engaging in exercise: Exercise is beneficial for health since it helps release dopamine which is known as the ‘happy hormone’. Physicians should exercise regularly to stay fit and eliminate stress as much as possible. Engaging in massage therapy, acupuncture or yoga is always a great method to reduce stress.
The US healthcare industry is gigantic and there are many outsourcing medical billing companies that hospitals rely on to ensure that their day-to-day operation runs smoothly besides optimizing the process of billing and coding, and Synergy HCLS is one of them. In order to mitigate physician burnout, it is important to have a great work environment overall and make sure that they are not feeling burdened by their work.
