Your oxygen mask first: How to battle healthcare burnout

Healthcare provider burnout is at an all-time high

Clinician burnout is a real threat to the stability of the healthcare system.  Staffing shortages are the primary reason – and that has worsened considerably since COVID. Burnout, however, was a problem in the healthcare system even before COVID because of increased stress, more paperwork and additional systemic burdens from new, increasing demands on providers.

Burnout will stress the system further – expect high demand, high costs and growing staff shortages

The impact and cost of healthcare provider burnout is a serious issue in the United States. Based on surveys of more than 20,000 US based physicians, data showed overall burnout rates at 49% over the last three years. Burnout comes at a high cost to the system, with recent studies showing that physician related turnover totals $5 billion annually.

More than 50% of physicians reported feeling burned out and 23% reported feeling depressed, according to a January 2023 Medscape Physician Burnout and Depression Report. Nurses continue to feel burnt out, overwhelmed by staffing shortages and uncertain about their future as well. Demand for health care is high, as burnout, turnover and rising labor costs are impacting the supply of high quality staff. Industry wide projections by the American Hospital Association estimate the industry will face a shortage of up to 124,000 physicians by 2033 – and will need to hire 200,000 nurses/year to meet the rising demands. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 12% nursing job growth through 2028 – faster job growth than most occupations – meaning approximately 200,000 new nurse positions will need to be filled annually through 2026 as mentioned above. Massive burnout due to shortages, conditions, lacking respect and other projected barriers likely will make these jobs very hard to fill. The US could see a deficit of 200,000 – 450,000 nurses available for direct patient care by 2025 – a 10-20% gap that places even greater demands on the nursing pipeline over the next 3 years.  

Provider satisfaction falling

US healthcare workers are under unprecedented strain – a HealthDay poll from Feb 2023, reports that nearly two thirds of US doctors and nurses – 63% –  feel moderate to a great deal of burnt out. Similar numbers and data were reported in other surveys as well. According to a National Academy of Medicine report, even before COVID in 2019 – approx 40-50% of doctors and nurses were reporting burnout. Now that number is closer to 70-90%. Since COVID, labor shortages, increasing demands and extreme stress – are contributing to even greater burnout and turnover.

Providers not only feel stressed, exhausted and burnt out, but they feel staff shortages and burnout are contributing not only to a decrease in professional and provider satisfaction, but potentially negatively impacting the quality of care provided as well.

• 57% of doctors would choose medicine again, down from 72% the year prior
• 22% of doctors feel highly professionally satisfied, down from 40% the year prior

Leading factors: staffing shortages, workload burden, safety and appreciation

Staffing shortages are the primary driver of burnout – there is more work, and the work is more stressful due to the lack of staff. One half of nurses are considering leaving their job, and physicians are right behind them, due to:

• Staffing shortages
• Poor work/life balance
• Mental health risks
• Lack of appreciation

60% reported that they do not feel they have control over their job or careers.

The National Academy of Medicine Report/ Harris Poll Survey identified 3 key causes of the severe burnout providers are feeling:

1. Staffing shortages are the greatest contributor to burnout. This is repeatedly reported as the biggest factor.  
   - 66% of primary care doctors and 75% of nurses cited staff shortages
   - Amount of daily paperwork is the 2nd greatest factor in burnout.
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2. 58% of doctors and 51% of nurses cited.
   - 2+ hours of paperwork to do at night at home, after a full day of face-to-face care.
   - Some providers wonder if the EHR made more work for the providers, because work previously done by support staff is now pushed onto clinical providers. However, most reporting shows that the EHR is not only very important to practices and patient care – it primarily takes the burden off of doctors and nurses and improves important quality factors like accuracy and effectiveness. How the use of the EHR is designed, how it’s implemented and how it’s regulated is the difference between a great tool that helps take the burden off clinical staff and seemingly creating more work. There are tools that can alleviate this burden. Medsien’s solutions, for example, help alleviate the burden and improve the efficiency, accuracy and effectiveness of all systems.‍
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3. Time dealing with insurance companies for their patients.
   

Always use technology and solutions that keep the provider in mind

There are healthcare and technology companies that work hard to implement solutions that keep providers in mind – that know burnout is high, staffing support is low, that physicians and all providers are busy and each new program or innovation often adds more work to your plate, not less. Medsien is that kind of company. We created Medsien with exactly this in mind – to offer solutions that truly help practices solve problems, support providers, improve efficiency, effectiveness and quality of care, and enhance patient care with no burden on the practice. We want to make things easier for providers and practices.  

Medsien was created to make it easier for you

We created Medsien with the idea that we could:

• build solutions that solve a problem, not create one.
• build solutions that target the problems many practices have implementing remote care management, and remove the complexities and burdens that new solutions often create – even unintentionally.  
• build solutions that allow us to partner with practices and make things easier for providers by alleviating the stress and burden of more administrative and operational burdens, more staffing needs and more time  – with no startup costs.
• build solutions that will enhance the patient experience with quality remote care management, expand your practice with our empathetic team of experts and automate your workflow from start to finish.

Power up your practice to reduce burnout and staffing burden  

Medsien scalable programs are designed around deep integration of the EHR into each facet of remote care management. With our seamless, deep EHR integration, we are able to help you introduce remote care management programs that are fast to set up, easy to use and help maximize the benefits. Our programs also support staff on the back end, with auto generated tracking and reporting to make compliance easy when providing care and when reporting requirements are needed.      

We help reduce burnout by offering solutions that support your practices and staff. Our solutions offer:  

• Easy set up and start up – with deep EHR integration, and our clinical staff to support all remote care management, our solutions are automatically integrated and require no training. Medsien streamlines your entire operations with automated tracking, reporting, and billing – with no changes to provider workflow nor any need to change software systems.  
• Simple systems – no operational complexity or admin burden for your staff
• Additional staff to support you and your staff  – augmenting your team to help with adding staff and reduce burnout.
• Improved patient engagement, provider engagement, health outcomes and ongoing support
  

The benefits of implementation outweigh the risks

Working with Medsien removes all the barriers and risks to ensure successful implementation and guarantees long term success of your remote care management program. We bring you all the clinical benefits through our personalization and coordination, and all the operational benefits through our automation and augmentation. Together, these yield growth and business benefits of lower costs, higher production and compliance readiness – with the guarantee of providing even more and better, high quality, personalized care that yields great outcomes and increased (patient and provider) satisfaction.  

We are your partners in better care providing care with no provider burden. Read more about the benefits of working with Medsien and how we make it easy to implement our programs.

About Medsien

Medsien is the leading provider of scalable remote care management for a quality patient experience. Hundreds of organizations trust Medsien’s unparalleled technology solutions to implement exceptional remote care management programs, personalize every interaction, and improve the lives of the people who need it most. Based in San Francisco and venture-backed by top-tier investors, Medsien was founded to reimagine remote care management. Visit medsien.com for more information.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Citations

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9868216/
2. https://www.forbes.com/sites/omerawan/2023/03/08/healthcare-worker-burnout-is-rampantheres-what-should-be-done/amp/
3. (healthcarefinance.com “cost of burnout related to physician turnover”)
4. (nurse.org – 2023 State of Nursing Report Findings)
5. (oracle.com “the shortage of US healthcare workers in 2023”)
6. (globalhealtheducation.com The future of Nursing)
7. (Beckers Hospital Review – beckershospitalreview.com)
8. (“Healthcare worker burnout is rampant – Here’s what should be done. Forbes, March 8, 2023. Omar Aman MD, MPH, CHP)
9. https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2023-02-23/almost-two-thirds-of-u-s-doctors-nurses-feel-burnt-out-at-work-poll
10. HealthCare Dive.  “Healthcare Trends in 2023: increased burnout, executive stress”  Hailey Mensik.  Jan 2023 /   (repeat) https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/healthcare-labor-trends-2023/641352/
11. https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2023-02-23/almost-two-thirds-of-u-s-doctors-nurses-feel-burnt-out-at-work-poll  (repeat)
    

Additional References:

1. https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/healthcare-labor-trends-2023/641352/
2. https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/MGMA-physician-doctor-burnout-COVID-pandemic-delayed/633803/
3. https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/covid-pandemic-nurse-burnout-leaving-profession-connectRN/636033/