Before I entered medical school, I did my Health Administration Master’s Thesis on the time commitments expected of doctors. I killed two birds with one stone: I got a good grade, and I dispelled my reservations about a profession I had started to view as too fuddy-duddy and rigid for me. I found that doctors had a choice on how hard they worked. Those who complained about medicine being a harsh mistress were doing it to themselves. I went ahead and applied for admission, thinking I would call my own shots after graduating.
But nowadays that choice has been taken away from doctors. They are now enslaved by bean counters holding a stopwatch outside the door. They are made to rush through short appointments that are mostly consumed by completing frustrating, idiotic medical records. Doctors no longer have the joy of lollygagging with patients about their lives, and the factors and upheavals that inexorably lead to disease.
I quit the system shortly after I graduated, something a growing number of doctors are doing. I no longer take insurance. Like they say, whoever signs the check runs the show. I work to live, not live to work. I did it for my health and that of my patients.
The other day I talked to a new patient for two hours. He was a lawyer. I tried to talk him out of suing his former doctor by explaining how burned out the poor guy is, buried under an avalanche of unreasonable demands. Then, I went home and took a nap.
Reference
Physician burnout now amounts to public health crisis that threatens delivery of U.S. health care.
“According to the Boston Globe (1/17, McCluskey), a new report due for release on Jan. 17 shows that “physician burnout has reached alarming levels and now amounts to a public health crisis that threatens to undermine the doctor-patient relationship and the delivery of health care nationwide.” The report produced by “the Massachusetts Medical Society, the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health…portrays a profession struggling with the unyielding demands of electronic health record systems and ever-growing” burden of regulations. The report “urges hospitals and medical practices to take immediate action by putting senior executives in charge of physician well-being and by giving doctors better access to mental health services.” In addition, the report “calls for significant changes to make health record systems more user-friendly.”
Close to 44 percent of U.S. physicians are burned out, and 15 percent are depressed, thinking about suicide.
“Reuters (1/16, Larkin) reports, “Close to 44 percent of U.S. physicians are burned out, and 15 percent are depressed and thinking about suicide,” Medscape concluded after surveying “more than 15,000 physicians across more than 29 specialties across the U.S.” The survey also found that “64 percent of respondents said they don’t plan to seek help for depression or burnout and they have not sought help in the past.” Additionally, “comments in the survey suggest that some physicians are retiring earlier because of burnout or depression.” The survey findings appeared online Jan. 16 on the Medscape website.”
