My comments on this article from the Atlanta: The Burnout Crisis in American Medicine
For me the burn-out came from time pressure - expecting me to get an entire patient visit done in 10-15 minutes. We all know that's impossible. People need more time with their doctor - to get everything, said, discussed, understood, handled. You shouldn't be limited to one medical issue per visit - this disrupts your life as much as it stresses out the doctor - why should you have to make multiple trips to the doctor's office to get all your health care handled?
The way to get this changed is to vote for Democrats in every election and in every office, and to talk to these Democrats often about how important it is to regulate the insurance industry while we move toward a universal health care system (such as Medicaid for all, or an improved Medicare for all with no premium, co-pay or deductible- all paid for by a progressive tax with no cap for the wealthy).
The insurance companies don't pay enough for your primary care visits for the doctor to spend more than 10-15 minutes with you. Then, we spend 1-3 hours at home in the evening, after a full workday, working in the electronic record trying to get all the documentation, billing, insurance issues addressed. Thus, we are burned out.
Right now you can demand - to your state and federal legislators, and to candidates - that you want the insurance companies/health care system regulated so that the office visit is paid at an amount needed to sustain a long-enough visit and also to pay nurses for their work in the office with you. Also, demand that the pre-authorizations and other insurance companies' artificial barriers-to-access hassles (designed to increase their profits, nothing else), are eliminated, and that your elected representatives vote to ban insurance companies from restricting you to a small group of doctors or hospitals.
To make this better - your health care, a system in which we have adequately trained doctors who pay attention to you and your needs, an affordable system - you'll have to decide if you want this, in which case you must vote all Democrat and stay in contact with elected officials. There's not another option.
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