health department

From the NEJM: More than half of U.S. physicians report significant symptoms of burnout — a rate more than twice that among professionals in other fields. Medical students and residents have higher rates of burnout and depression than their peers who are pursuing nonmedical careers. Physicians with symptoms of burnout are twice as likely to leave an organization as those without such symptoms "The health system cannot sustain current rates of clinician burnout and continue to deliver safe, high-quality care". What to do? Here are some examples (more reading available at the reference links below): - To prevent burnout, Mayo Clinic has leadership-effectiveness scores for every division head and department chair. - University of Colorado health uses medical assistants to set the agenda for patient visits and write the notes (almost 3 assistants per physician) References: http://bit.ly/2rFjlxx http://bit.ly/2DFQ0sz Comments: Amazing when you offload physician administrative task...

From BMJ: The researchers evaluated a 20% random sample of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries aged 65 and older admitted to hospital with a medical condition in 2011-14 and treated by hospitalist physicians. Main outcome measures 30 day mortality and readmissions and costs of care. The study included 700,000 admissions managed by 18,800 hospitalist physicians (median age 41). Patients’ adjusted 30 day mortality rates were: - 10.8% for physicians younger than 40 - 11.1% for physicians aged 40-49 - 11.3% for physicians aged 50-59 - 12.1% for physicians aged 60 and older See the figure here: http://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/357/bmj.j1797/F1.large.jpg Note: Among physicians with a high volume of patients, however, there was no association between physician age and patient mortality. Within the same hospital, patients treated by older physicians had higher mortality than patients cared for by younger physicians, except those physicians treating high volumes of patients. The calculated ...

From this Reuters/Yahoo article : "Dr. Brian Halloran, a vascular surgeon at St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor, starts planning his garden long before spring arrives in southeast Michigan. His tiny plot, located in the shadow of the 537-bed teaching hospital, helps Halloran cope with burnout from long hours and the stress of surgery on gravely ill patients. "You really have to find the balance to put it a little more in perspective," he said. Hospitals such as St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor have been investing in programs ranging from yoga classes to personal coaches designed to help doctors become more resilient. But national burnout rates keep rising, with up to 54 percent of doctors affected." Burnout as a syndrome is marked by emotional exhaustion, cynicism and decreased effectiveness. A 2015 Mayo Clinic study found that more than 7% of 7,000 doctors had considered suicide within the prior 12 months, compared with 4 percent of other workers. Some blame the way medicine is ...