Burnout has long been an issue that has plagued frontline healthcare workers. Unfortunately, with a growing physician shortage, (90k predicted by 2025) and aging population, (83.7M people 65 years or older by 2050) the problem is expected to persist. But there’s much that can be done to offset the problem. AI-driven technologies, such as ambient clinical intelligence, can dramatically decrease administrative burdens to restore quality of life and the joy of practicing medicine.
Editor’s note: This blog was last updated January 31, 2024.
This blog was contributed by Dr. Jared Pelo, co-founder at Bionic Health.
Burnout has long been an issue that has plagued frontline healthcare workers. The COVID pandemic has increased burnout both in its intensity and scale with more physicians reporting feelings of burnout. Pre-pandemic, 42% of physicians said they were burned out and 64% say it has intensified due to the pandemic. It is estimated that burnout costs U.S. healthcare organizations $4.6B a year.
But just what is burnout and what are its impacts?
According to the World Health Organization, burn-out is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions:
- Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion
- Increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job
- Reduced professional efficacy
Unfortunately, with a growing physician shortage, (90k predicted by 2025) and aging population, (83.7M people 65 years or older by 2050) the problem is expected to persist.
In Medscape’s burnout and depression report, these are the top contributors to burnout:
- Too many bureaucratic tasks 60%
- Too many hours at work 34%
- Lack of control/autonomy over my life 32%
It is no surprise that “too many bureaucratic tasks” top the list. Especially when you consider that for every hour of patient care, two hours are spent documenting it.
While you may not be able to control government regulations or COVID protocols, you can control the top factors contributing to burnout:
These three factors are intertwined. The administrative burden contributes to too many hours working, often spent after hours documenting care, which leads to feelings of lack of control over ones’ life.
The antidote to help mitigate burnout is ambient clinical intelligence (ACI). It reduces administrative burdens by automatically documenting care.
In fact, Nuance’s ambient clinical intelligence solution, the Dragon Ambient eXperience Copilot (DAX Copilot) is reducing documentation time by 50% and boosting physician satisfaction. 93% of DAX copilot users say they would be disappointed if they no longer had access to teh technology and 9 out of 10 recommend it.
So, just what is DAX Copilot?
Nuance DAX Copilot is an AI-powered, voice-enabled solution that automatically documents patient encounters accurately and efficiently at the point of care. For use in office and telehealth settings, in all ambulatory specialties including primary and urgent care, DAX Copilot enhances the quality of care and the patient experience, increases physician efficiency and satisfaction, and improves financial outcomes. Deep-learning-based AI automatically converts encounter conversations into clinical notes tailored to each specialty. Simply said, DAX Copilot is clinical documentation that writes itself.
Hear directly from customers about the many benefits they are experiencing with DAX.