Physician Burnout Leads to Medical Errors and Distress

Ivanhoe Newswire
Wednesday, September 6, 2006; 12:00 AM

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Doctors who have made a recent major medical error are more prone to depression and burn out, which could then make them more likely to make a mistake in the future, according to the findings of a new study.

Researchers from Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., studied 184 medical residents from 108 medical schools in the United States and across the world. Participants completed a survey every three months.

The researchers report 34 percent of the participants said they made at least one major medical error during the study. Each quarter, 14.7 percent of the residents said they made a medical error in the past three months, 20 percent of participants reported one error, 6 percent reported two, and 8 percent said they made three or more mistakes.

Researchers report the physicians who admitted to making a mistake were much more burned out. Sixty percent of residents who reported an error screened positive for depression at least once during the study -- nearly twice the rate as those who reported no errors. Results also show more burned out and depressed doctors were more likely to report an error in the next three months.

"In addition to the obvious negative effects of errors on patients, studies have shown that the physicians involved often experience guilt, shame, distress and depression," says lead researcher Tait Shanafelt, M.D. "Better understanding these effects on physicians, and how they may affect the care future patients receive, is the goal of our research."

Researchers conclude they need more studies to find effective ways to help physicians who have made medical errors. They also call for residency programs, HMOs, and hospital administrators to work on preventing, identifying, and treating burnout in their physicians.

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SOURCE: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 2006;296:1071-1078