Physician dissatisfaction and burnout are growing problems created by declining reimbursement, conflicting priorities and cumbersome technology, according to Britt Berrett, PhD, of the Dallas-based University of Texas.
Dr. Berrett is the Center for Healthcare Leadership and Management director in the Naveen Jindal School of Management.
Here are five takeaways from an opinion piece he shared on Dallas News:
1. Medscape surveyed more than 15,000 physicians and found 42 percent reported burnout. More than half of those burned-out physicians pointed to an excess of bureaucratic tasks as the cause.
2. In Dr. Berrett's opinion, orthopedic surgeon Carl Highgenboten, MD, gave the greatest advice for fighting physician burnout: "Let me be a physician," he said.
3. Physicians are being dragged into accounting, billing and coding processes unrelated to their profession and forced to utilize complex electronic health records. Many must pursue fiscal strategies in the midst of collapsing reimbursements.
4. It is healthcare leaders' responsibility to reconfigure our overly complex reimbursement model and look to other industries for models of effective business strategies.
5. By integrating smart business processes and systems into the care delivery system, healthcare leaders will free physicians to care for patients and combat burnout.