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Physician burnout may jeopardize patient care, according to research published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
A review and meta-analysis suggested that physician burnout was associated with a higher risk of patient safety incidents, reduced patient satisfaction, and low professionalism.
Burnout was defined as “a response to prolonged exposure to occupational stress encompassing feelings of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced professional efficacy.”
This research was conducted by Maria Panagioti, PhD, of the University of Manchester in the U.K., and her colleagues.
The researchers analyzed 47 studies on the topics of physician burnout and patient care, which included data from a pooled cohort of 42,473 physicians.
Nearly 45% of studies included physicians in their residency or early career (up to 5 years post-residency), and 55.3% included more experienced physicians. The studies included physicians in a hospital setting (63.8%), primary care setting (27.7%), or a mix of health care settings (8.5%).
The data indicated that physician burnout was significantly associated with:
- An increased risk of patient safety incidents—odds ratio [OR], 1.96 (P<0.001)
- Low professionalism—OR, 2.31 (P<0.001)
- Reduced patient satisfaction—OR, 2.28 (P<0.001).
The researchers noted that the reporting method had an impact on the results. According to physician report, burnout was associated with significantly increased risks of safety incidents (OR, 2.07) and low professionalism (OR, 2.67).
However, according to system reports, there was no significant association between physician burnout and safety incidents (OR, 1.00) or low professionalism (OR, 1.15).
Another factor that impacted results was physician experience. The association between burnout and low professionalism was significantly larger in studies of residents and early career physicians (OR, 3.39) than in studies of middle- and late-career physicians (OR, 1.73).
The researchers noted that this review had its limitations, including variation in outcomes across studies, heterogeneity among studies, potential selection bias by excluding gray literature, and the inability to establish causal links from findings because of the cross-sectional nature of the studies analyzed.
This research was funded by the United Kingdom National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) School for Primary Care Research and the NIHR Greater Manchester Patient Safety Translational Research Centre. Study authors reported no relevant conflicts of interest.