Empowered doctors, staff foster low medical practice burnout, poll finds

Dive Brief:

• A new study in Health Affairs found a correlation between lack of burnout and the overall cultural health and resiliency of medical practices.
• Researchers surveyed 715 medical practices in 12 states. Burnout was gauged by using the Maslach Burnout Inventory, a tool that measures emotional exhaustion of people on a five-point scale.
• The study concluded that burnout was highly correlated to how the practices were managed — strongly suggesting they functioned far better with a collaborative management style using proactive communications.

Dive Insight:

While burnout has long been a problem among medical professionals, a number of recent surveys suggest the pandemic exacerbated it.

More than 60% of frontline healthcare workers surveyed earlier this year by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Washington Post said the pandemic has negatively impacted their mental health, and many have struggled getting the help they need.

And physicians' trust in the U.S. healthcare system significantly declined during the pandemic, another recent survey from nonpartisan research group NORC at the University of Chicago, commissioned by the ABIM Foundation found.

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