Understanding and Preventing Physician Burnout

With today’s veritable tsunami of change in health care, physicians face unprecedented and unrelenting challenges that have left many of them overwhelmed, and sapped of the energy and stamina needed to weather transitions and emerge intact. Simply expressed, many U.S. physicians are burned out, and recent reports suggest they are burning out in record numbers. Given the critical importance of these professionals to the very functioning of the nation’s healthcare system, this phenomenon demands the attention of every stakeholder in health care who might be in the position to help, including finance leaders of hospitals and health systems. Having the ability to address this problem meaningfully and effectively, however, requires first an understanding of the root causes of physician burnout.