Physician Burnout Will Burn All of Us

It’s hard to find anyone these days who is happy with the health care system. But for physicians, it’s much deeper than unhappiness—it is about burnout.Physician burnout has been on the rise, increasing 17 percentage points in the decade between 2011 and 2021. This isn’t just an isolated issue for physicians. Physician burnout is costly for all of us. It impacts patient care and patient safety, as research shows that physicians suffering from burnout are more than twice as likely to be involved with patient safety incidents than physicians who are not suffering from burnout. Burnout also increases health care spending, as physician turnover related to burnout costs the health care system an excess of $260 million a year. And burnout is especially an issue for worsening health care access and outcomes in underserved rural communities and communities of color, where much-needed physicians are leaving their practices. Nearly one-half of physicians exiting the workforce cite burnout as a major reason. Not every physician is experiencing burnout equally—female physicians are experiencing a burnout rate of 63 percent in contrast with their male counterparts at 46 percent—and this has special implications for certain specialties dominated by female doctors, such as primary care and obstetrics, which are, not uncoincidentally, specialties with high burnout rates as well.