Doctors are burned out, making medical errors: study
Are you feeling burned out? Your doctor may be, too. Researchers have found that medical errors may be a result of exhaustion in the workplace.
According to the Stanford University School of Medicine, burnouts are causing a decrease in quality of care, patient safety and patient satisfaction. Of the 6,695 physicians that participated, 55% reported burnout symptoms, and 10% reported that in the three months prior to the study they had made a major medical error. Administrative work is one factor.
“This, alongside with abuse of health care workers, assaults on health care workers, are two important issues that have been overlooked,” Dr. Mikhail Varshavski, known as Dr. Mike, told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo on “Mornings with Maria” on Wednesday.
Previously, medical errors have been blamed on a myriad of other issues, but now the focus is on the health care workers, according to Dr. Mike.
“Before we used to say it’s errors in communication, it’s a lot of checklists, and we used to blame it on system-wide errors,” he said, “but now we’re finding it has something to do with physician well-being.”
Dr. Mike is putting the onus on health care organizations to take the necessary steps to maintain the well-being of physicians and lessen administrative workloads.