Physician burnout in perioperative medicine negatively impacts patient care quality and safety, while incurring untenable economic costs due to high turnover and early exit from medical practice.
Physician burnout in perioperative medicine poses significant risks to patient safety and healthcare economics, necessitating systemic interventions by healthcare leaders.
Perioperative care delivery is a patient-centered, multidisciplinary process. It relies heavily on synchronized teamwork from a well-coordinated team. Perioperative physicians-surgeons and anesthesiologists-face enormous challenges in surgical care delivery due to changing work environments, post-COVID consequences, shift work disorder, value conflict, escalating demands, regulatory complexity, and financial uncertainties. Physician burnout in this working environment has become increasingly prevalent. It is not only harmful to physicians' health and well-being, but it also affects the quality and safety of patient care. Additionally, the economic costs associated with physician burnout are untenable due to the high turnover rate, high recruitment expenses, and potential early permanent exit from medical practice. In this deteriorating environment of unbalanced physician supply/demand, recognizing, managing, and preventing physician burnout may help preserve the system's most valuable asset and contribute to higher quality and safety of patient care. Leaders in government agencies, health care systems, and organizations must work together to re-engineer the health care system for better physicians and patient care.
Shin et al. (2023) conducted a review in Physician burnout in perioperative medicine. Physician burnout in perioperative medicine negatively impacts patient care quality and safety, while incurring untenable economic costs due to high turnover and early exit from medical practice.