Advanced Technology Combined with the Human Touch Can Ease Physician Burnout
Physicians Across the different Medical Care Settings are all at Risk of Burnout. It’s a problem that Politicians cannot solve by Passing new Policies.
The rate of physician burnout has already been likened to an epidemic, with 46 percent of all practicing doctors reporting symptoms in a 2015 Medscape Physician Lifestyle survey.
But thanks to long EHR implementation cycles and other administrative work, the phenomenon of physician burnout is now accelerating.
This is something our country’s healthcare system cannot afford, as it is already under tremendous strain from contentious politics and inequality in care delivery.
We can re-energize our country’s physicians with new technologies that can remake the health system, putting the doctor-patient relationship at the center.
What Causes Burnout?
Caring for patients is a stressful job. But doctors are further burdened by administrative work that forces them to spend hours every day practicing at the bottom of their license instead of the top.
Physician burnout is bad for patients, and costly for health systems. Stanford University, Harvard Business School, The Mayo Clinic and the American Medical Association are studying the costs associated with burnout, with some experts saying the cost of replacing a single physician can easily reach $1 million.
But in truth, the cost can be much higher. In parts of the country not well-served by the managed care system — including urban and rural areas — physician burnout can easily mean that another independent medical practice will be closing its doors.
Physicians in every clinical setting are at risk of burnout because of mounting administrative work, compliance with regulations, maintenance of certificates, and other matters.
But independent doctors are at greater risk because they do not have the same resources to cope with these pressures than managed care doctors have.
What Technologies Can Make a Difference?
New Technologies can level the playing field for physicians in independent practice and can help solve care inequality by removing borders between doctors and patients.
Independent practices and the entire managed care system should have access to an open healthcare marketplace, where the patients who most need them can find them.
Telemedicine platforms that make use of VR and AR can eliminate boundaries between consumers and caregivers, and bring them together regardless of physical location.
Cloud-based information technologies can be made to work more interoperable so that administrative work can be streamlined and automated.
Major medical institutions and healthcare networks are now trying to reverse physician burnout, and are launching a range of different initiatives to take some of the burdens off doctors.
But we need an even more robust program for independent physicians because they are under more threat, and when they close their doors they tend to close for good.
Physicians across the different care settings are all at risk of burnout. It’s a problem that politicians cannot solve by passing new policies.
New technologies that bring doctors, patients, experts, regulators, and other stakeholders together in one marketplace: this will be the advancement that makes physicians energized about their careers again.
