The Burnout Crisis Among Healthcare Clinicians: Contributors and Solutions

Clinician burnout has been increasingly recognized as a major problem in the U.S. healthcare industry. Issues of mental health, well-being, suicides, and clinicians leaving healthcare (quitting or retirement) have all been noted. This is true for both physicians and nurses, as well as, but less documented for, other healthcare providers. Other intangible costs include decreased efficiency, potential safety problems and increased health issues resulting in reduced productivity. Recent research suggests that there are numerous factors that contribute to clinician burden and burnout. While employee engagement, provider burden and burnout are not the same thing, there is often substantial overlap. Prime drivers of burden and burnout include documentation burden, management of inbox overload, and administrative overhead, as well as administrative culture. The specific factors that lead to burden and burnout will be discussed, with attention to recent research. It will be emphasized that there is a need for individualized review of local factors which can only be determined by surveying employees. Specific programmatic developments for reducing inbox overload, documentation burden, and improving other IT-related problems will be presented. Additionally, administrative solutions to reduce burden for caregivers will be discussed as potential pathways toward the future.