Estimating the Attributable Cost of Physician Burnout in the United States
2019/05/27 by Shasha Han, Tait D. Shanafelt, Christine A. Sinsky +5 · 33 citations
Health Professions · Social Sciences · Psychology · #Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout #Diversity and Career in Medicine #Perfectionism, Procrastination, Anxiety Studies
paper · doi:10.7326/m18-1422
Abstract
Background: Although physician burnout is associated with negative clinical and organizational outcomes, its economic costs are poorly understood. As a result, leaders in health care cannot properly assess the financial benefits of initiatives to remediate physician burnout. Objective: To estimate burnout-associated costs related to physician turnover and physicians reducing their clinical hours at national (U.S.) and organizational levels. Design: Cost-consequence analysis using a mathematical model. Setting: United States. Participants: Simulated population of U.S. physicians. Measurements: Model inputs were estimated by using the results of contemporary published research findings and industry reports. Results: On a national scale, the conservative base-case model estimates that approximately 4.6 billion in costs related to physician turnover and reduced clinical hours is attributable to burnout each year in the United States. This estimate ranged from 2.6 billion to 6.3 billion in multivariate probabilistic sensitivity analyses. At an organizational level, the annual economic cost associated with burnout related to turnover and reduced clinical hours is approximately 7600 per employed physician each year. Limitations: Possibility of nonresponse bias and incomplete control of confounders in source data. Some parameters were unavailable from data and had to be extrapolated. Conclusion: Together with previous evidence that burnout can effectively be reduced with moderate levels of investment, these findings suggest substantial economic value for policy and organizational expenditures for burnout reduction programs for physicians.
Cited by
- The Human Cost of Respiratory Care
- Changes in Burnout and Satisfaction With Work-Life Integration in Physicians During the First 2 Years of the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Scalable Stewardship of an LLM-Assisted Clinical Benchmark with Physician Oversight
- Effects of compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress on current drug use among healthcare workers: Differences by occupational level
- Burnout: A Review of Theory and Measurement
- Burnout, wellbeing and defensive medical practice in obstetricians and gynecologists in the UK before and after the COVID pandemic: A repeated cross‐sectional survey study
- Invited Commentary: Toward Sustainable Surgical Practice: Defining Workplace Standards for the Modern Era
- Associations of physician burnout with career engagement and quality of patient care: systematic review and meta-analysis
- Workplace-Based Organizational Interventions Promoting Mental Health and Happiness among Healthcare Workers: A Realist Review. [europepmc]
- Professional Dissonance and Burnout in Primary Care: A Qualitative Study. [europepmc]
- Electronic health records and burnout: Time spent on the electronic health record after hours and message volume associated with exhaustion but not with cynicism among primary care clinicians. [europepmc]
- The geographic alignment of primary care Health Professional Shortage Areas with markers for social determinants of health. [europepmc]
- Are specific elements of electronic health record use associated with clinician burnout more than others? [europepmc]
- Exposure to COVID-19 patients increases physician trainee stress and burnout. [europepmc]
- Enhanced Stress Resilience Training in Surgeons: Iterative Adaptation and Biopsychosocial Effects in 2 Small Randomized Trials. [europepmc]
- Assessment of Electronic Health Record Use Between US and Non-US Health Systems. [europepmc]
- Association Between Sexual Orientation, Mistreatment, and Burnout Among US Medical Students. [europepmc]
- Clinician Burnout Associated With Sex, Clinician Type, Work Culture, and Use of Electronic Health Records. [europepmc]
- Associations of physician burnout with organizational electronic health record support and after-hours charting. [europepmc]
- Long working hours and burnout in health care workers: Non-linear dose-response relationship and the effect mediated by sleeping hours-A cross-sectional study. [europepmc]
- A qualitative study of experiences of NHS mental healthcare workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. [europepmc]
- Academic Medicine Faculty Perceptions of Work-Life Balance Before and Since the COVID-19 Pandemic. [europepmc]
- Associations Among Nurses' Mental/Physical Health, Lifestyle Behaviors, Shift Length, and Workplace Wellness Support During COVID-19: Important Implications for Health Care Systems. [europepmc]
- Experiences of LGBTQ+ Residents in US General Surgery Training Programs. [europepmc]
- Assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on clinician ambulatory electronic health record use. [europepmc]
- Burnout: A Review of Theory and Measurement. [europepmc]
- Childcare Stress, Burnout, and Intent to Reduce Hours or Leave the Job During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among US Health Care Workers. [europepmc]
- Predictors of burnout among US healthcare providers: a systematic review. [europepmc]
- Associations of physician burnout with career engagement and quality of patient care: systematic review and meta-analysis. [europepmc]
- Emotional Exhaustion Among US Health Care Workers Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic, 2019-2021. [europepmc]
- Trends in Clinician Burnout With Associated Mitigating and Aggravating Factors During the COVID-19 Pandemic. [europepmc]
- The Association of Work Overload with Burnout and Intent to Leave the Job Across the Healthcare Workforce During COVID-19. [europepmc]
- The relationship between physician burnout and depression, anxiety, suicidality and substance abuse: A mixed methods systematic review. [europepmc]
Related