Author response: The burnout patient

Thank you, Dr. Sethi, for adding your voice to this vital discussion.1 I concur that the mainspring of health caregiver fulfillment and motivation, and of patient well-being, is optimizing the patient-physician relationship while delivering the highest quality cognitive and procedural care. Over the centuries, medicine has bobbed on the ocean of scientific progress, social mores, and economics. Our times are no different. Health care planning, lauded as creative destruction, has made way for disruptive innovation both of which have undoubtedly contributed to care delivery evolution. However, change will neither be free of unintended consequences nor be absolved from societal change. Therefore, no iteration of care delivery ever will be final; re-evaluation will always be necessary. Humility must be foundational in all enterprise planning. When patient and physician sustainability are not the required outcomes of change, that change will be untenable and superseded more rapidly. I have written on health care delivery challenges in the United States2 and described restorative methods for caregivers and patients.3 In characterizing the "burnout patient," I hope to advance discussion from the consequences of planning on doctors to the inevitable repercussions for patients, surely the ultimate focus of health care planning and delivery.
Source: Neurology Clinical Practice - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: The Nerve! Readers Speak Source Type: research