Doctors have been reporting higher and higher levels of burnout since the pandemic started, but there are barriers between them and the support they need.
Reporting requirements can intimidate doctors out of pursuing mental health help — even for career burnout support. A proposal making its way through the legislature would give them more privacy when getting counseling for exhaustion and depression associated with work.
Physicians in Tennessee have to report any mental health treatment they get to several groups. That includes insurance companies that pay for their services, the medical licensing boards that over see them and hospitals where they work.
State Senator Richard Briggs says this can be a problem.
“These disclosures serve as barriers for a physician suffering from career exhaustion, or career burnout, to seek treatment, and ultimately contribute to the reduced professional performance and — in extreme-risk cases — to medical errors,” he said during the measure’s committee hearing.
Briggs’ proposal would nix that requirement for burnout treatment. It would still require the physicians to report other mental health and substance use issues.
The Senate version, SB 734, has made it through the committee process and is awaiting a floor hearing. The House version, HB 628, still has to pass out of the chamber’s health committee. It’s on the calendar for March 20.
About two-thirds of doctors across the country in 2021 reported feeling burned out according to a study by the American Medical Association.
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