Physician Burnout: Making Positive Changes in Your Life and Practice
According to many researchers, physician burnout is generally made up of three components: Lack of energy both emotionally and physically, feelings of cynicism, and a low sense of personal achievement. Regardless of your profession, someone who is suffering from extreme exhaustion simply can’t perform at their best. Physicians who suffer from these feelings aren’t going to be able to form a strong relationship with their patients, and eventually the overall care will begin to decline.
According to studies, about one in every three physicians will experience burnout at some point in their career and it appears to have increased during the pandemic. It’s critical that we look at this growing development and assess what it means for us. Think for a moment about the investment we’ve put into becoming good doctors. We’ve spent a considerable amount of time, money and hard work because we are committed to this path. And now that we are heavily invested in our work and our patients, we need to recognize the growing epidemic of physician burnout and more importantly, make changes so we can return to enjoying the practice of medicine.
Understanding the Need for Change
It’s important to note that according to research, most cases of physician burnout are not caused by bad experiences with patients or patient communications. Rather, most data suggests that it is due to overwhelming administrative and clerical responsibilities as well as inefficient work processes that are interfering with our focus on our patients. But, more on that later.
When I look at our profession, I see an education gap between my generation and the generation currently in training. When I went to medical school, we were simply trained to be physicians, not business owners. Fortunately, for more recently trained doctors, universities are recognizing changes in healthcare and its landscape, and are responding by offering physicians alternative educational tracks such as business and healthcare policy. This shift in education presents a notable advantage for our younger colleagues.
But for us, as independent physicians with plenty of years left to practice medicine, and having endured two years of a global pandemic, how do we maintain a workplace where physician wellness prevails?
Finding the Right Balance
First and foremost, we, like everyone else, need to set goals. There are demands weighing us down today that weren’t there 15 years, or even two years ago, and they are only going to get more substantial. Perhaps we can’t change the direction that healthcare is moving, but we do have the power to change how we approach our work as a whole. Independent physicians who want to preserve well-being need to take mental inventory of their work and consider what responsibilities they enjoy most. These responsibilities are often addressed in one of three typical approaches: focusing more on the business side of your practice, dedicating more time to practicing medicine than running your business, or deciding you want to do both equally. The key to success is finding your fit; determine which approach is going to offer the right balance enabling you and your practice to continue to thrive.
Once you’ve reflected on your responsibilities and set your goals, you can now begin to assess how you are going to achieve them and who is going to help manage each of the responsibilities. To do this, you need to evaluate which aspects are weighing you and your practice down and take a look at some of the demands outside of taking care of your patients. As an independent physician, you have to make sure you have the right tools, resources and support that will allow you to do your best work. For me, in addition to taking care of our patients, my partners and I were juggling everything else that comes along with owning a business. This included HR, operations, business development and revenue cycle management, just to name a few. We realized we needed to develop a plan and delegate responsibilities to alleviate some of these burdens so patient care didn’t suffer.
It is extremely difficult to find one person with a skill set broad enough to successfully manage all of these business functions. Therefore, the idea of hiring outside expertise to assist with practice management can be highly effective in promoting the success of your practice and preventing the kind of exhaustion to which we have all fallen prey. For us, in order to continue to be a successful practice and achieve that balance we desired, it made sense to outsource our revenue cycle management. Our internal billing team was excellent, in fact they were so good that not only did we outsource, but we formed a billing company, separating it from the practice completely.
And we did this with an important goal in mind: help other independent physicians successfully navigate the tedious, time-consuming, complicated, and exhausting realm of revenue cycle management that can often be a contributing factor to physician burnout.
Conclusion
As physicians we focus on the care of our patients and keeping them healthy. Shouldn’t we do the same for ourselves?
Recognizing the signs of burnout is a difficult, but important first step. Setting goals to strike a healthy balance when addressing the business challenges within your practice will enhance your success while mitigating your burnout risk. This balance is very individualized. For some, this might be outsourcing certain internal processes that are inefficient or ineffective and put your practice at financial risk. For others, it might mean internal changes.
Whatever your solution is, it needs to start with thorough self-reflection. While it may all seem daunting and a little intimidating at first, in the long run, prioritizing physician wellness will be better for you, your practice and your patients.