Doctor Burnout Reaches 'Critical Level', Study Finds

While doctors are known to give professional health care to patients in need of different health needs, a national survey has found that the burnout experienced by U.S. doctors “has reached a critical level.” Combined with personal bias, the researchers said that this burnout will greatly affect the quality of care that patients will receive.

The researchers wrote in the Medscape Lifestyle Report that more than 15,800 physicians have responded to the survey and have found that a staggering number of health providers are experiencing burnout, which is “generally defined as loss of enthusiasm for work, depersonalization, and a low sense of personal accomplishment.”

Additionally, they also found that certain patient characteristics, such as emotional problems, weight, intelligence and language differences trigger a doctor's personal bias. This, in turn, affects the quality of care that they give.

Amongst all doctors in the U.S., doctors who reported burnout the most came from the critical care, urology and emergency medicine areas, where 55 percent of respondents reported at least one aspect of burnout, reports the United Press International. Family and internal medicine followed closely at 54 percent each.

Burnout appeared to have affected more females than males, reports Spine Review. Fifty-five percent of female doctors reported burnout, compared to 46 percent of male doctors.

The researchers also found that 40 percent of all doctors in the survey admitted to have a personal bias towards patients. The highest bias is found among those who had the most direct contact with patients, with the emergency medicine at 62 percent, orthopedists at 50 percent and psychiatrists at 48 percent.

Doctors, who admitted to having personal bias, reported that a patient's emotional problems evoked the most bias among them at 62 percent, followed by weight, intelligence and language differences as 52, 44 and 32 percent respectively.

Of the doctors who expressed burnout, 43 percent reported that they also had biases. Thirty-six percent of those who did not have burnout, however, also admitted to having bias as well.

Researchers suggest that the two, burnout and bias, might be related because those who are experiencing burnout might have less patience for patients who exhibited major bias triggers.

In explaining what needs to be done to help improve physicians' conditions and lower burnout, the researchers cited a study where “patient-centered medical homes” or the PCMH were effectively implemented, resulting in higher patient satisfaction, lower burnout and improved quality of care. Thus, they suggest improving patient satisfaction will help.