Physicians, better keep burnout at bay

Physician burnout is at least equally responsible for medical errors as unsafe medical workplace conditions, if not more so, according to a new study. “If we are trying to maximize the safety and quality of medical care, we must address the factors in the work environment that lead to burnout among our health care providers,” says Tait Shanafelt, director of the WellMD Center at Stanford University and associate dean of the university’s School of Medicine.

“Many system-level changes have been implemented to improve safety for patients in our medical workplaces. What we find in this study is that physician burnout levels appear to be equally, if not more, important than the work unit safety score to the risk of medical errors occurring,” he explains.

Medical errors are common in the United States. Previous studies estimate these errors are responsible for 100,000 to 200,000 deaths each year. Limited research, though, has focused on how physician burnout contributes to these errors, the new study finds.

The researchers sent surveys to physicians in active practice across the United States. Of the 6,695 who responded, 3,574-55 percent-reported symptoms of burnout. Ten percent also reported that they had made at least one major medical error during the prior three months, a figure consistent with previous published research, the study says. Researchers also asked the physicians to rank safety levels in the hospitals or clinics where they worked using a standardised question to assess work unit safety.

“We found that physicians with burnout had more than twice the odds of self-reported medical error, after adjusting for speciality, work hours, fatigue, and work unit safety rating,” says lead author Daniel Tawfik, an instructor in paediatric critical care medicine.