Dive Brief:

• The Collaborative for Healing and Renewal in Medicine (CHARM), a group of medical centers and organizations including the American Medical Association, has published a charter that seeks to address burnout, dissatisfaction, depression and increased suicide risk among physicians. 
• The charter, published in JAMA, argues that medical organizations, regulatory groups and individual physicians themselves must own up to the responsibility of meeting physicians' needs, and sets forth an eight-step framework that can help providers alleviate challenges and support physician well-being
• The "mounting burdens of the modern health care delivery system are taking a toll on physicians by contributing to the growing problem of work-induced burnout and emotional fatigue," AMA President David Barbe said in a statement supporting CHARM's charter. 

Dive Insight:

According to a recent Medscape survey, nearly two-thirds of U.S. physicians report feeling burned out (42%), depressed (15%) or both (14%), all factors that CHARM argues impact patient care, patient satisfaction, access to care and healthcare costs.

Of the 15,000 physicians who participated in the poll, 33% said their depressed feelings impact patient relationships, a metric that the industry is increasingly relying on as an indicator for success. 

The charter's steps are broken down into three sections: societal, organizational, and interpersonal and individual commitments. 

Societal commitments

1. Foster a trustworthy and supportive culture in medicine 

2. Advocate for policies that enhance physician well-being

Organizational commitments

3. Build supportive systems

4. Develop engaged leadership

5. Establish highly-functioning interprofessional teams

Interpersonal and individual commitments

6. Anticipate and respond to inherent emotional challenges of physician work

7. Prioritize mental healthcare

8. Practice and promote self-care

The charter also sets forth three guiding principles to help medical organizations, regulatory groups and individual physicians put the eight steps into action. 

Also cited in the charter is a JAMA study that argues physician burnout is responsible for "one third of the cost of physician job turnover to the health care system." Much of that burnout is blamed on administrative tasks such as imputing health data into EHRs. 

To prevent what the Association of American Medical Colleges estimates will be a shortage of 100,000 physicians by 2030, the industry will need to first address the factors that impact physician well-being and contribute to burnout.