Original articleImpact of Organizational Leadership on Physician Burnout and Satisfaction
Section snippets
Participants
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit, physician-led health care organization with 3 large academic campuses (Rochester, Minnesota; Scottsdale, Arizona; and Jacksonville, Florida) and an integrated group of community-based hospitals and health care facilities serving more than 70 communities in Iowa, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. As part of its efforts to foster a cohesive organization, Mayo Clinic surveys its physicians, scientists, allied health staff, and all other employees approximately every 24
Results
Of the 3896 physicians/scientists surveyed, 2813 (72.2%) responded (2684 physicians and 129 scientists), of whom 2540 (90.3%) were engaged in direct patient care activities. The demographic characteristics, professional characteristics, rates of burnout, and satisfaction of responders are shown in Table 2. The median age was 45 to 54 years, 71% were men, and half had been in practice for more than 10 years. No statistically significant differences were observed between responders and
Discussion
These findings demonstrate the importance of frontline leadership on the well-being and professional satisfaction of physicians working for a large health care organization. Leadership ratings demonstrated a strong association with burnout and satisfaction at the level of individual physicians after adjusting for age, sex, duration of employment at Mayo Clinic, and specialty area. At the work unit level, 11% of the variation in burnout and 47% of the variation in satisfaction with the
Conclusion
The leadership qualities of physician supervisors have a direct effect on the personal well-being of the physicians they lead. These findings have important implications for the selection and training of physician leaders. The results also provide new insights into organizational factors that impact physician well-being.
Acknowledgments
We thank Michelle Mungo for her administrative support related to this analysis.
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For editorial comment, See page 425
Grant Support: Funding for this study was provided by the Mayo Clinic Office of Organization and Leadership Development and the Mayo Clinic Department of Medicine Program on Physician Well-being.