Physical work environment and burnout among primary care physicians in Israel: a cross-sectional study

Physician burnout remains a prevalent issue globally, negatively affecting work satisfaction and patient care. However, exploration of the physical work environments of physicians, a potential influencing factor for burnout, remains scarce. The physical work environment is everything that surrounds the physician, including the doctor's office, the clinic, the clinic's building, the waiting, and staff rooms. The aims of this study were to describe aspects of the physical work environment of primary care physicians (PCPs) and to explore the association between the physical work environment and burnout.

In this cross-sectional study, we emailed questionnaires to an online community of PCPs in Israel in October 2021. We asked physicians about their satisfaction with their physical work environment, evaluated elements of the work environment, and assessed burnout status (with the Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure, SMBM). We used the Chi-square and Mann-Witney tests to compare categorical and continuous variables and used logistic regression for the final model.

Two hundred twenty-one PCPs answered the questionnaire (27.6% response rate). Over a third (35.7%) of respondents reported high burnout. PCPs who were satisfied with their general physical environment had lower burnout rates than those who were unsatisfied (28.1% vs. 47.8%, p-value < 0.001). We found positive correlations between general satisfaction with the physical work environment and the scores achieved for the doctor's office, the clinic, the clinic's building, and the waiting room. In the multivariate analysis, high satisfaction with the general physical work environment was associated with decreased odds for burnout (OR-0.50, 95% CI 0.25-0.99, p-value-0.048).

The doctor's office, the clinic, the clinic's building, and the waiting room affected general satisfaction from the physical work environment. High satisfaction with the physical work environment reduced burnout rates. Future studies are needed to determine whether PCPs and managers should invest in the physical work environment to decrease burnout and increase satisfaction.