Local Hospitals Take On Massive Burnout Crisis
From deploying artificial intelligence to the training of chief wellness officers, Chicago hospitals move to address burnout in healthcare
By Bonnie Miller Rubin
It WAS A TYPICAL Saturday night at Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s Emergency Department. More than 100 patients were sprawled everywhere, spilling over from the waiting room into the lobby—even the floor.
In the midst of all the chaos is one triage nurse, juggling a long line of new patients while fielding questions—and sometimes verbal abuse–from those who have been waiting for five hours or more.
Welcome to the state of healthcare today. The ED might be the epicenter of stress, but crisis levels of burnout appear everywhere. Grueling demands, such as long hours, staff turnover, a loss of autonomy and pressure to see more patients in less time have all taken a heavy toll on employees. The global pandemic just exacerbated the already challenging working conditions.
Nearly Half of Healthcare Workers Feeling Burnout
Clearly, healthcare workers are not alright. Depression and anxiety are rampant, according to numerous studies, such as one by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers compared survey data from 2018 to 2022. The results: 32% of health workers reported feeling burned out often or very often in 2018 vs. 46% just four years later.
In another survey of some 43,00 healthcare professionals by four major organizations, includ- ing the American Medical Association, almost one-quarter of doctors said they planned to quit in the next two years. For nurses, the rates were even higher at 56%.
And here’s the most sobering statistic of all: 300 to 400 doctors commit suicide each year, according to Medscape.
The grim numbers have become a wake-up call for many hospital leaders, who are now searching for evidence-based solutions to reduce and prevent burnout. In a world where needing help was once considered a sign of weakness and a career-killer, the new message is now, “It’s OK to not be OK.”
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