The New Pandemic: Burnout Threatens to Wipe Out a Generation of Providers

The following is a guest article by Amanda Ford, Executive Vice President of Operations at ScribeAmerica
For care teams across the nation, provider burnout isn’t a buzzword, it’s a reality. And while some by-products of the pandemic are expected to disappear with time, burnout seems to be staying. If anything, the issue is getting worse. Increased workloads, difficult-to-navigate EHRs, documentation processes, administrative tasks, and more challenging work-life balance. Doctors are stuck spending more time working, but less time with patients.
The issue plagues every specialty in every state. And as providers grapple with burnout, more professionals are stepping away from healthcare altogether. Almost 3% of the healthcare workforce is resigning each month, accounting for 1.7 million people who quit last year. More than a quarter of those resignations are credited to burnout, reported Forbes.
The reality is that there is no pre-COVID world to return to. The stress of the pandemic exposed foundational cracks in the healthcare system that demand attention. Care teams must adapt the way they work, the way they engage with patients, and the way they embrace technology, to adjust to the new normal.
The New Pandemic
Burnout is used as a catch-all to describe physical and emotional exhaustion that results in poor performance, lack of engagement, and depression. Providers have named a long list of contributing factors that cause burnout, including; poor work-life balance, EH...

Source: EMR and HIPAA - October 5, 2023 Category: Information Technology Authors: Guest Author Tags: Ambulatory Clinical EMR-EHR Health IT Company Healthcare IT Hospital - Health System Administrative Burden AI Scribes Amanda Ford Medical Scribes Patient Documentation Physician Burnout Provider Burnout ScribeAmerica Source Type: blogs