Physician burnout has become high-profile issue in healthcare. Increasingly recognized as common phenomenon, it has the potential to affect central point of care delivery by threatening physician engagement and even availability. Senior healthcare leaders must understand the terminology of burnout, become familiar with the sources of data used in its discussion, and take practical steps to minimize this phenomenon in complex world.CHARACTERIZING PHYSICIAN BURNOUTDefinitionThe Maslach Burnout Inventory manual states that burnout is a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment that can occur among individuals who work with people in some capacity (Maslach, Jackson, & Leiter, 1996). Emotional exhaustion refers to one's psyche being drained, depersonalization is reflected in impersonal responses, and reduced personal accomplishment describes negative feeling about oneself and the value and competence of one's work. Burnout can also be viewed as the opposite of engagement (Studer, 2015).IncidenceThe percentage of physicians who described themselves as burned out in the Medscape Physician Lifestyle Report increased from 40% in 2013 to 46% in 2015 (Peckham, 2015). Women reported higher level of burnout than men. Practice categories in which burnout rates were 50% or greater were critical care, emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, general surgery, and HIV/infectious disease care.Interestingly, different group of specialists described their burnout as severe. Leading this list were nephrology, cardiology, plastic surgery, urology, and dermatology. Developing theory to explain these differences is difficult. However, it seems that physicians on the front lines of care are most likely to experience burnout, whereas the degree of burnout for physicians in highly paid specialties is more likely to be severe when it occurs.The Physician Misery Index offers data on burnout from another perspective. The index was developed by Geneia, company that provides consulting services to institutions dealing with underengaged physicians, and is based on survey that included about 400 responses. The single-time-point study was interpreted as showing that overall, the nationwide Physician Misery Index is 3.7 out of 5, indicating that scales are tipping from satisfaction to misery (Lavoie, 2015).By comparison, more upbeat view of the of medicine was reported by 2014 Physicians Foundation survey, in which large sample of physicians reported significant improvement in professional morale and feelings about the state of the medical profession compared with the results of 2012 survey. Overall, the conclusion that physician burnout is rapidly worsening should be tempered by the data from this survey.Surveys may produce the results toward which they are biased. The questions in one survey might emphasize negative emotions and find that physicians are indeed an unhappy group, whereas the questions in another survey might lead to less negative view. Because the questions are not available online, however, it is difficult to directly test this theory.CausesPhysicians answering the Medscape survey listed many bureaucratic tasks, too many hours at work, insufficient income, and increasing computerization of practice as the top causes of dissatisfaction (Peckham, 2015). Interestingly, lack of professional fulfillment scored much lower as cause. Intriguing correlations were reported among those with higher rates of burnout (single and living alone, high level of personal debt, lack of exercise, and being overweight), lower rates of burnout (came to the United States as an adult and were married, remarried, or widowed), and no difference in rates of burnout (political leaning, daily alcohol intake, and spirituality).IdentificationIn his recent book on physician burnout, Studer (2015) outlines list of leading and lagging indicators of this condition. …