The COVID-19 public health emergency reshaped the nation’s health care workforce, leaving lasting strain on physicians and their teams. Even after the public health emergency eased, turnover and staffing shortages remained high, amplifying the workload and emotional toll for many physicians and other health professionals. These persistent staffing gaps are taking a measurable toll on physicians’ well-being, according to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Drawing on data from the AMA Organizational Biopsy®, the study reveals that inadequate team staffing was also linked to physicians’ intentions to cut clinical hours or leave their organizations. The findings underscore how sustained workforce shortages and daily understaffing continue to affect morale and retention in medicine long after the acute phase of the COVID-19 public health emergency.
Participants included 970 physicians from 15 organizations. Respondents worked in primary care, medical, surgical and other specialties, which included radiology, anesthesiology, pathology and radiation oncology. Nearly half of physicians surveyed said they worked with an incompletely staffed team more than one-quarter of the time—and those physicians were more than twice as likely to report burnout.
How often doctors reported working with incompletely staffed teams differed by physician specialty. These shares of physician specialists said they worked with understaffed teams more than one-fourth of the time:
- Other specialties (e.g., radiology, anesthesiology, pathology, radiation oncology): 62.4%.
- Surgical specialties: 49.3%.
- Primary care specialties: 44.8%.
- Medical specialties: 38.5%.
Additionally, among respondents, 47.9% met the criteria for burnout and 26.4% reported intent to reduce clinical hours. Meanwhile, 15.4% said they intended to leave their current organization in the next 24 hours.
“In this study, physicians frequently experienced incomplete team staffing. Working with an incompletely staffed team was associated with significantly greater odds of burnout,” intent to reduce hours and intent to leave, says the study, which was led by AMA member Lisa Rotenstein, MD, an internist in San Francisco.
Given the associations between intent to leave and attrition, “our findings emphasize the importance of adequate staffing,” the study says. “When interpreted alongside evidence that work overload is associated with physician burnout and [intent to leave], while control over team composition is associated with lower odds of these outcomes, our results underscore the central role of health care teams in shaping physician experiences.”
As the leader in physician well-being, the AMA is reducing physician burnout by removing administrative burdens and providing real-world solutions to help doctors rediscover the Joy in Medicine®.
Invest in team-based solutions
Given the complex financial pressures in the U.S. health care system, hiring sprees are often not a financially sustainable fix to address the understaffing problem that contributes to doctor burnout. Across the country, health systems are redesigning care teams to strengthen support for physicians and patients alike. Efforts range from cross-training staff and expanding medical assistant roles to improving scheduling flexibility and redistributing administrative work. By investing in team-based care, health care organizations aim to rebuild stability and reduce physician burnout.
These powerfully illustrative examples of improved team-based care come from health care organizations that are part of the AMA Health System Member Program, which provides enterprise solutions to equip leadership, physicians and care teams with resources to help drive the future of medicine.
Confluence Health trains care teams to support physicians
- The Confluence Health system in Central Washington is taking bold steps to implement innovative strategies to cut stress, enhance work-life balance and foster a culture of support. And these efforts are being noticed. One way is by offering training for medical assistants, nursing and other care team members to help decrease in-basket burden.
Geisinger works with pharmacy teams to tackle prior authorizations
- Leaders at Geisinger wanted a way to reduce physician burnout. Thanks to a team of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, they are doing just that by tackling one of the biggest headaches in medical practice today: prior authorization. Geisinger created a centralized pharmacy services team made up of pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacy support associates to support the prior authorization process in a more efficient and effective way. The team manages about 90,000 prior authorizations a year.
Northwell Health made adjustments to workflows in the EHR
- Northwell Health, which has more than 12,000 credentialed physicians and is New York’s largest health system, fosters a supportive environment that values teamwork through adjustments in workflows in the EHR. For example, Northwell Health has an initiative to make it easier for physicians to delegate certain tasks to medical assistants. This required support from an IT standpoint to update the workflow in the EHR to allow physicians to assign tasks to medical assistants.
Ochsner Health relies on its leaders to show how teamwork matters
- Winning the battle against physician burnout requires more than just awareness, say leaders at Ochsner Health in New Orleans. It requires broad collaboration and a multifaceted approach. But it is important not just to have teamwork but also to make it apparent to everyone in the organization. That is where leadership can help by showing that teamwork is a priority.
Sanford Health partners with schools to boost teams
- Recruitment and retention are not just about the physicians in communities Sanford Health serves. If support teams aren’t given a comfortable space to work in to take care of patients, they will seek work elsewhere. Sanford Health has been partnering with universities and technical colleges in its region to ensure it has the allied health professionals needed to keep health systems and medical practices running. This includes surgical technicians, radiology technicians, respiratory therapists, physical therapists, occupational therapists and certified nurse anesthetists.
Sutter Health offers help with documentation
- At Sutter Health, physicians saw a decrease in time spent on the EHR each day, dropping from 54.53 minutes to 46.69 minutes a day—a 14% reduction. This is largely due to help from documentation specialists. Medical assistants at Sutter Health are trained to help with the care experience, from documentation to being a chaperone, ensuring the physician can focus on the patient.
The Southeast Permanente Medical Group has IT at the table
- Bringing IT to the table really began with The Southeast Permanente Medical Group’s previous work to improve operational inefficiencies with its “Pebbles in the Shoe” campaign. This effort set out to identify and reduce inefficiencies and documentation burdens by offering a three-week challenge period for clinicians and staff to submit ideas, or “pebbles,” for improving efficiencies. From there, teams work behind-the-scenes to address these issues throughout the year.
Download the 2025 AMA Joy in Medicine magazine (log into your AMA account to view) to see whether your organization is part of the prestigious group of 164 organizations across 40 states and the District of Columbia that are currently recognized for their dedication to physician well-being.
