Setting our sights on the right target: how addressing physician burnout may be a solution for improved patient...

Physician burnout is an important issue that can have serious implications for both physicians and patients. Many of the techniques used by larger medical groups attempt to compel improvements in patient satisfaction scores at the potential cost of increased physician burnout. Because burnout has been associated with poorer patient care and experience, medical groups large and small should work aggressively to reduce the causes of burnout as a way to also improve patient experience. In this contribution, the patient experience measure and the electronic medical record are reviewed in the context of the regulatory and bureaucratic pressures they place on physicians to examine how they may contribute to burnout and, therefore, worsen patient experience.