Associations Between Integrated Care Practice and Burnout Factors of Primary Care Physicians

Physician burnout is increasingly problematic across many health care settings. Despite this trend, little is known about whether the type of collaboration in these settings may potentially help curb this trend. We explored whether higher levels of integrated care practice are associated with reduced burnout for physicians across settings.

A national survey was sent to health care professionals who work in a variety of medical settings. Primary care physicians (n=288) were a subset of this sample and were asked about their practice demographics and perceptions of burnout. A shortened version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) assessed for areas of burnout in physicians.

Higher levels of integrated care were associated with higher personal accomplishment (B=1.89, 95% CI:0.47, 3.31) and lower depersonalization (B=-2.48, 95% CI:-4.54, -0.42) in routine practice on the MBI. No significant associations were found between MBI scores and both years of practice at a current site or number of providers at the site.

While physician burnout continues to be a worsening problem, integrated care may be an additional strategy to help curb this trend. Administrators need to consider the value of integrated practice in addressing physician wellness-the potentially next big aim of health care.