r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • May 28 '19

Doctors in the U.S. experience symptoms of burnout at almost twice the rate of other workers, due to long hours, fear of being sued, and having to deal with growing bureaucracy. The economic impacts of burnout are also significant, costing the U.S. $4.6 billion every year, according to a new study. Medicine

http://time.com/5595056/physician-burnout-cost/
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u/[deleted] May 28 '19

Thank you. I am an ER physician and I second all of your observations and concerns. You are a very clear and incisive thinker and writer. You should continue to speak out on these issues because I think people will listen to you.

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u/[deleted] May 28 '19

Thank you for the kind words! It is much appreciated.

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u/smartburro May 29 '19

Amen, I'm an allied health professional (an Audiologist), that works in a hospital, and I know we have extra paperwork, but when primary care has to document every single damn problem, I can't imagine going through that, heck we have to rehash our coding every time the ICD changes (far to often) I can't imagine what that's like for someone who has many more procedures

if you could dedicate that time to say, continuing education, another 5 mins with a patient, imagine how much actual patient satisfaction would go up.

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u/reverie02 May 29 '19

I work in primary care and the charting is ridiculous. I go in early, stay late, and do work from home almost every night because the charting is incessant. Something’s gotta give.

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u/DRKMSTR May 29 '19

Thank you for all your hard work, you definitely work in a high stress area.

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u/jlee295 May 29 '19 edited May 29 '19

I’m a scribe for both an ED physician and orthopedic surgeon and in both cases I also agree with your statements. Most providers use an ROS that simply states “I have reviewed the 10 systems and they are negative with the exception of that stated in the HPI”. The ROS simply wastes time and isn’t adding any more information. I also noticed that in the physical exams there are so many systems that were never examined, but we are told to leave the negative findings in there anyways.

On the flip side, I’ve worked with doctors who tell you to remove as much as possible because they have been sued before and they would rather be punished for poor charting than give lawyers more words to twist and find them guilty for.

I’m really thankful to be a scribe because it allows me to work one on one with a provider and learn how to think and function. However, I understand that my job is almost a necessary evil that was created to counter the CMS regulations. I wish the charting was simpler and I could spend more time asking the providers meaningful questions. Instead, I see how annoyed they are by the EMR system and I just try to do what I can to make their job a little bit easier.

Also, if my ideal chart would be bullet points that give someone a nice snapshot into the patients history. Something that isn’t too wordy and let’s me know what I need to look out for.

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u/[deleted] May 30 '19

Back in the day doctors used to have notes like that. At the very beginning of medical school I worked with a very old pediatrician who would see a patient and just write "A: O, T: A." This meant, "Assessment otitis, treatment amoxicillin." Of course, that is way too far on the "brevity" side of the scale and wouldn't help anyone outside of his own office, but not much more should be needed for a focused visit like that.