Vital Times 2019 - 99

GAIN Without Pain:
The Happiness Handbook
for Physicians
By Greg Hammer, MD

T

he following is an excerpt from Dr. Hammer's
new book, "GAIN Without Pain: The Happiness
Handbook for Physicians":
We physicians are in a unique position to help others
and most of us relish this opportunity. Nevertheless,
more than half of physicians in the United States are
experiencing professional burnout.
The costs of burnout are staggering. Physicians who
feel burned out make more medical errors. They
often reduce their work hours, resulting in reduced
access to medical care for patients. Physicians with
burnout are more likely to change jobs-this disrupts
continuity of care. Replacing physicians is very
expensive for institutions, costing up to $1,000,000
per physician at Stanford.1 Physicians experiencing
burnout are more likely to leave medicine altogether.
Turnover is disruptive not only to patients but also to
staff, and loss of respected doctors may diminish the
prestige of institutions. Physician burnout is linked
to cardiovascular disease, poor sleep, a decrement in
self-care-issues that are both cause and effect, i.e.
produce a self-perpetuating downhill spiral. In 2017 the

incidence of burnout among physicians was essentially
unchanged compared with 2011, meaning that no real
progress has been made even though the problem is
now well known by administrators and physicians in
leadership positions.2 Physicians at the "front line"
are the most afflicted, e.g. internal medicine, family
practice, emergency medicine, but most specialties
across the board show similar trends. Sadly, rates of
physician suicide are rising among physicians who are
experiencing burnout.
Burnout among doctors remains higher than in other
professions. We physicians are in a category all by
ourselves, with nearly half of us suffering from varying
degrees of work-related stress. Doctors absolutely must
become more resilient. Burnout is stealing our minds,
bodies, relationships, and threatens to take our very
lives.
The conditions fostering burnout are on the rise.3
Contributing factors include work-life imbalance
due to longer work hours, greater inefficiencies due
to administrative obstacles posed by payers and the
electronic medical record, and the need to see more

Annual Publication 2019 | 99



Vital Times 2019

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