Burnout in the healthcare industry has been rampant and rising since before the Covid-19 pandemic brought the issue to the forefront. Nurse burnout, physician burnout, clinician burnout, and general healthcare worker burnout have resulted in doctors quitting, staffing shortages, high turnover, and longer wait times to get care. In 2022, the US Surgeon General issued an official warning about the urgent need to address the healthcare worker burnout crisis and systemic challenges in the industry.¹

In order to serve healthcare practices from start-up to large systems with day-to-day clinical workflows, medical billing, and practice management with its core electronic health records, revenue cycle management, and patient engagement software, athenahealth regularly talks to physicians, nurses, and healthcare workers about their needs. In 2023, athenahealth commissioned a Physician Sentiment Survey of more than 1,000 doctors across the United States, fielded by Harris Poll. It’s a comprehensive instrument that provides a detailed pulse of what physicians think about their workload and the healthcare industry challenges they face.

This year’s results show some gains and losses when compared to some of the same questions asked in previous years. Analysts at athenahealth have examined the statistics and created insights about the causes of healthcare burnout and ways physicians have identified to improve it.

The insights are catalogued below, and each piece digs deeper into specific themes from the comprehensive research. We recommend starting with a topic that interests you most or hits closest to home with your experience, then diving in deeper to see how that relates to others’ experience practicing medicine and managing practices today.

Regulatory, administrative and documentation burdens in healthcare

Study: clinical documentation work leads to physician burnout	How to improve healthcare operations to ease the administrative burden for physicians

Regulatory requirements continue to burden U.S. physicians, with downstream effects on the patient	Physicians using multiple payment models feel more financially secure, study finds

Turnover plus information and communication overload hit physicians hard

The Right Info at the Right Time: Combatting data overload, note bloat & EHR usability challenges	Healthcare staffing shortages remain a fundamental concern for physicians

Managing patient communication to reduce physician burnout

1. New Surgeon General Advisory Sounds Alarm on Health Worker Burnout and Resignation | HHS.gov