NYC docs in small practices experience less burnout

Physicians working in small, independent New York City practices on average showed fewer signs of burnout than all physicians nationwide, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.

The study surveyed 235 providers at 174 small, independent practices, finding just 13.5% of respondents said they had experienced burnout. That compares with an average of 54.4% of all doctors surveyed in a national study in 2014.

One explanation is the greater sense of autonomy doctors feel when operating their own practice, said the study’s senior author, Dr. Donna Shelley, professor of population health and medicine at NYU School of Medicine.

While the study compares results to a national average, Shelley said, it cannot be used to compare burnout rates with large practices, which weren’t part of the survey. But it does suggest that medical groups and hospitals should look for ways to give physicians a voice in decisionmaking to improve their job satisfaction.

Independent doctors are increasingly concerned about their ability to keep up as government and private payers demand reporting on quality of care, said Greg Burke, director of innovation strategies at the United Hospital Fund. But Burke’s research on strategies that will help independent practices survive found city doctors had similar traits to those demonstrated in the study.