You can't deny a physician's job is one of the most difficult and stressful in the U.S. today. Each day when your doctors come to work, they're responsible for the well-being and safety of the patients. Having to deal with high-stress levels, illness and death all the time can really take its toll. Add that to physician scheduling inefficiencies, it can lead to physician burnout, which can impact patient care and physician retention.
Burnout rates among physicians aren't decreasing either. In fact, in 2019, Medscape published a report on physician burnout showing:
- Almost 50% of all surveyed doctors are burned out.
- A big reason for doctor burnout is having too many bureaucratic tasks (i.e. paperwork, charting).
And, you combine this with a jam-packed schedule every week with little to no downtime, it's definitely a recipe for disaster.
Fortunately, technology these days has changed not only how healthcare is delivered, but also how schedules are being crafted, delivered, and managed. Shift scheduling software is a crucial component in decreasing physician burnout. You can easily incorporate your physicians' specific needs into the schedules with the help of scheduling software.
The software takes each doctor's customized requirements into account when creating the schedule and you can handle last-minute changes in a matter of minutes.
Physicians can now feel like they're more in control since their personal and family needs are incorporated directly into the whole schedule process.
Emergency medicine scheduling software can:
1. Allow Physicians to Enjoy a Work-Life Balance
Doctors frequently work long and irregular shifts. Weekends, nights, holidays - these shifts are all the norm for doctors. And, this can really take a toll on their interactions with family and friends and their social lives. Not only is being overworked a big reason for doctor turnover, but a lack of work-life balance is too.
2. Streamline the Workload
Being able to streamline the day-to-day workload of a healthcare practice can substantially decrease doctors' feelings of cynicism and powerlessness linked with burnout. This is especially key when physicians are mobile and work for multiple facilities within a hospital network.
3. Offer Better Quality Patient Care
Doctors experience burnout more commonly than any other worker in the U.S. Studies show many doctors experience burnout. Burnout is a syndrome marked by: - Feelings of cynicism
- Enthusiasm loss for work
- Low sense of personal accomplishment
- Feeling drained and exhausted
- Trouble sleeping
- A drop in libido
- Lowered immunity, resulting in developing more illnesses
- Changes in appetite
And, burnout might increase the chances for medical errors and influence patient care quality.
While the practice of medicine can be extremely fulfilling and meaningful, it's also stressful and demanding. Although quality shift scheduling isn't going to fix every problem in healthcare, it's definitely going to help. It provides doctors with a better balance of work and life and offers a robust defense against physician burnout, so they can provide patients with better healthcare.
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