HOW HIGH ARE hospitalist burnout rates? According to results from the 2023 Today’s Hospitalist Compensation & Career Survey, just over half of hospitalists say the problem is significant or very significant, although the numbers are even higher for some physicians in the specialty.
Among hospitalists who treat adults, 57.4% said that burnout is significant or very significant. About one-third (31.9%) said the issue was slightly significant while 10.7% said it was insignificant.
Just over one half (50.5%) of academic hospitalists reported that burnout is significant or very significant. By comparison, 59.7% of nonacademic hospitalists reported the same thing.
By group type, burnout was lowest among hospitalists who work for local hospitalist groups. For those hospitalists, 52.1% said the problem was significant or very significant.
The highest reported burnout by employer type came from hospitalists working for national hospitalist management companies. Among them, 66.7% reported that the issue was significant or very significant.
Burnout by years in the field
When we asked about burnout based on years of experience, the numbers indicate that the problem seems to grow in significance the longer hospitalists work in the specialty.
However, those figures don’t exactly show a steady progression. Among hospitalists with two or fewer years on the job, for example, only 42.8% said that burnout was significant or very significant. For hospitalists with three to four years of experience, the percentage jumped to 62.2%, but among hospitalists with five to nine years of experience, reported burnout was 56%.
FOR A LOOK at interventions to reduce clinician burnout, see Today’s Hospitalist coverage on interventions to prevent breakdowns.
Hospitalists who had either 10 to 14 years of experience or 15 to 19 years reported similar numbers. But among hospitalists with 20-plus years of experience, burnout percentages spiked back up. Among the most experienced hospitalists in our survey, 63.2% said the issue was significant or very significant.
For updated information on hospitalist career satisfaction, check out our 2024 Compensation & Career guide here.
