{"id":57,"date":"2017-12-04T20:00:14","date_gmt":"2017-12-04T20:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nam.edu\/clinicianwellbeing\/?page_id=57"},"modified":"2018-04-10T10:59:17","modified_gmt":"2018-04-10T10:59:17","slug":"health-care-costs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/nam.edu\/clinicianwellbeing\/effects\/health-care-costs\/","title":{"rendered":"Health Care Costs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although clinician burnout is widely recognized, not enough has been done to systematically address this apparently growing problem. One reason for this is a lack of understanding and then awareness of the economic costs and consequences associated with clinician burnout and why investing in efforts to combat burnout could have a positive impact on the fiscal health of organizations.<\/p>\n

Costs Associated with Clinician Turnover<\/h3>\n

Data suggest that the underlying causes of and resultant burnout is a major driver of clinician turnover.<\/a> Over time, increased turnover adds up to substantial financial losses to organizations through direct costs associated with recruitment, revenue lost while finding a replacement, and the additional time it takes for new staff to get caught up in a new environment. Some studies suggest that costs to replace a physician are 2-3 times their annual salary<\/a>. A 2012 report from the Association of Staff Physician Recruiters estimated that the actual lost revenue<\/a> for one client was $990,000 for each full-time equivalent physician. Similarly, the cost of replacing a nurse is estimated<\/a> at $37,700 to $58,400. The cost of replacing subspecialty clinicians is likely to be substantially higher, with estimates ranging from hundreds of thousands to more than $1 million<\/a>. Stanford University estimates that if nothing were done to address burnout, almost 60 physicians would leave Stanford within two years. This economic loss could range from $15.5-55.5 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These numbers do not account for the disruptive impact turnover can have on other members of the care team, including an increased risk of burnout<\/a> for both direct colleagues and other members of the care team. Burnout in individual clinicians can drain work teams and the prevalence of burnout-producing factors and individual manifestations can best be perceived as infective and painfully synergistic<\/a>. \u00a0These numbers also do not account for costs associated with patient safety and care. One study found that hospitals in which burnout among nurses was reduced by 30%, had a total of 6,239 fewer patient infections, for an annual cost saving of up to $68 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Costs Associated with Decreased Productivity<\/h3>\n

Although difficult to fully quantify, large costs associated with clinician burnout can stem from the loss of productivity in clinicians who are experiencing burnout. In a study of 2,500 physicians at the Mayo Clinic, every 1-point increase in burnout and 1-point decrease in professional satisfaction was associated with a 30-50% increased likelihood that physicians would reduce their professional work effort<\/a> (e.g. the amount of time they spend in patient care activities) in the following 24 months. While reducing work effort as an adaptive coping mechanism may reduce medical errors and illnesses, small changes in productivity can have large effects on an organization\u2019s bottom line. In academic medical centers, costs associated with productivity losses are even harder to quantify, but one estimate suggests that burnout can lead to a 15% decrease in productivity<\/a> for faculty who are involved in academic work writing grants and authoring publications.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although clinician burnout is widely recognized, not enough has been done to systematically address this apparently growing problem. One reason for this is a lack of understanding and then awareness of the economic costs and consequences associated with clinician burnout and why investing in efforts to combat burnout could have a positive impact on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"parent":13,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-topic.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-57","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nam.edu\/clinicianwellbeing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/57","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nam.edu\/clinicianwellbeing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nam.edu\/clinicianwellbeing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nam.edu\/clinicianwellbeing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nam.edu\/clinicianwellbeing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nam.edu\/clinicianwellbeing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/57\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nam.edu\/clinicianwellbeing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nam.edu\/clinicianwellbeing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}