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I think part of the key to burnout is noting the #3 issue of not enough income. Given that the average MD salary is between 150-250K per annum, most Americans would find this absurd. Teachers are making 40-50K. In 25 years of medicine I have found that burn out is largely self inflicted. If you are willing to see less people and make less money you will not burn out. There are plenty of options available to work a relaxed schedule for less money. If you are in the rat race and your lifestyle requires you to make more than 150K and work 50+ hours, you might think about living simpler and smelling the roses.

By Jack Wolf MD on Aug 28, 2015 at 12:14pm

Speaking as a burned out doc, what do you do if you are seeing more pts. and making less money. Thats how its going. Medicare reimbursement, down 21%, bcbs down 6% or even but it take 60-120 days to get you money.  ACA gave us $60000 to implement a $100000 system. The only way to make up that is see more pts. I had to take vacation to moonlight in order to make up for lost wages. I would love to smell the roses but sallie mae won’t let me.  As a family doc i knew I wouldn’t be loaded but I also didn’t think I’d have to sell plasma to make up for crappy reimbursement rates and $7000 dollar patient portal for pts that don’t even have computers.

By Drew Stock on Aug 28, 2015 at 8:00pm

EMR destroyed me.  I cannot take care of patients with EMR.  I am forced to quit medicine because of this fiasco.  I can’t read EMR notes (too much science fiction and too much gibberish).  I can’t write notes in an EMR.  Too slow and cumbersome.  I can’t take care of patients without decent medical records. I burned out in one year trying to do Allscripts.

By Mark E Meijer, MD on Sep 22, 2015 at 5:06pm