When Did Practicing Medicine Start Feeling Like This?
You’ve probably heard the term doctor burnout used thousands of times in news stories, hospital memos and even popular television (for example, every episode of “The Pitt”). Over the last 10 years, it’s been hard to get away from burnout stories, especially during the pandemic.
But physician burnout isn’t a recent phenomenon. It’s been a topic for the past 30 years, the subject of hundreds of surveys and studies. Burnout even has its own ICD-11 entry, as an occupational condition:
“Burnout is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”
So much attention – yet it’s still a condition that physicians don’t always recognize in themselves. Burnout is characterized by:
Feelings of emotional exhaustion or energy depletion;
Increased mental distance from your job or cynicism;
A reduced sense of professional effectiveness.1
In medicine, this mental health strain results from chaotic work environments with high volumes of patients. Time pressures and poor work-life balance also contribute. Even electronic health records and other administrative burdens play a role.
Burnout isn’t just an ICD-11 code; it has real consequences for doctors who are suffering from it and for patients of those doctors. A recent survey by the Physicians Foundation found:
57% of physicians felt inappropriate anger, tearfulness or anxiety in the past year;
46% withdrew from family, friends or co-workers;
34% felt hopeless or without purpose.2
These numbers are consistent with pandemic-era surveys, driven by staffing shortages, increased administrative tasks and inadequate time with patients – especially among hospital employed PCPs.3 Burnout is causing doctors to retire early or leave the industry altogether. The Association of American Medical Colleges estimates that by 2036 there will be a shortage of up to 86,000 primary care physicians.4
Retiring early or leaving patient care altogether isn’t the only option for primary care doctors experiencing burnout. There are healthcare models that help address the problems causing physician burnout.
Physicians operating under the MDVIP model, for example, are satisfied with practicing and report that they have time to focus on what matters most: stronger relationships with patients and be able to care for themselves, from exercise to more time with family.
“As my old primary care practice grew, I felt rushed. I didn't feel like I had enough time. I felt like I really was headed towards burnout,” says Dallas-based internist Mark Fleschler, MD, FACP.
Dr. Fleschler decided to affiliate with MDVIP in 2019, and things improved dramatically. “The MDVIP model has rekindled that flame that I had when I first became a doctor. And I'm really enjoying what I'm doing now much more than I was the last several years before.”
In the MDVIP model, affiliated physicians see fewer patients than most primary care practices – usually fewer than 600. They have time to focus on preventive care, and they have less paperwork and red tape.
For Carmen Teague, MD, MC, an internal medicine doctor in Charlotte, it was hard to accept burnout, a subject she talked about regularly as a leader in a local healthcare system. Her family eventually staged an intervention, which led to her leaving the system and setting up her own practice with MDVIP.
“I think I prefer the term moral injury to burnout,” Dr. Teague says. “Moral injury is when you're asked to do something that you know is wrong, whether that's not spending enough time with patients or whatever, but you really don't have a choice. The system is forcing you to do it.”
After affiliating with MDVIP in 2024, Teague says she now has the time to really focus on her patients and delivering care, without the administrative burden or external pressures.
“My experience now with a patient is so very different. I sit in the room, I say, how was your day? How was your weekend? Tell me about those grandkids,” Dr. Teague says. “I have time to ask those questions. And then when I do get into the actual part of the visit, I get to ask a patient, ‘What's on your agenda today?’ We have time to talk about all of it. In fact, I named my practice ‘Teague Internal Medicine and Enrichment,’ and the acronym is TIME.”
Time is exactly what’s behind most cases of burnout. And with physicians leaving the field and reimbursements dwindling, current primary care doctors may have even less of it in the coming years. If you’re dealing with symptoms of burnout, it may be time to look for a different approach to practicing.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2833881; Ipsos/MDVIP 2025 Physician’s Survey