Attention Summer Students! Now hiring students for summer 2024. Find your summer job here.
The Ontario Medical Association says there’s been a rise in physician burnout during COVID.
A recent study shows it’s up to 75 percent.
That’s up from 66 percent pre-COVID.
Dr. Rose Zacharias is president of the OMA and says there is one big reason behind doctor burnout.
“Administrative burden is the number one contributor to physician burnout,” Dr. Zacharias told an OMA briefing Wednesday.
“Doctors spend so much time at their computers, at their desk, looking into a screen, as opposed to patient facing, building that rapport, developing that relationship.”
She says a doctor does an average of 10 1/2 hours a week filling out forms and other administrative tasks.
Dr. Zacharias adds there are practical solutions to address the issue.
“Looking to streamline our computer and technology so that software programs are in communication with one another, reducing the time for the redundancy of all the computer keyboard clicking that doctors do and take them away from their patient work. This would restore our joy in medicine…we know it.”
Dr. Zacharias says physician burnout seems to be highest among women, mid-career doctors and general practitioners.