Physician burnout fell in 2023 compared to the previous year, but the amount of "pajama time" being put in has not changed, an American Medical Association report found.
The AMA Organizational Biopsy report surveyed more than 12,400 physicians across 31 states and in 81 health systems and organizations. The report found the percentage of physicians reporting burnout declined to 48.2% in 2023, compared to 53% in 2022, despite the number of hours worked in a week rising slightly from 58.6 average workweek hours to 59.
In 2023, physicians reported spending an average of 27.3 hours on direct patient care, 14.1 hours on indirect patient care and 7.9 hours on administrative tasks. About 21% of physicians reported spending more than eight hours on the EHR outside of normal work hours on weekdays, a phenomenon known as pajama time.
The number of hours spent on pajama time has remained steady between 2022 and 2023, with 14% of physicians reporting spending six to eight hours outside of work on the EHR, compared to 26% of respondents reporting spending zero to two hours.
"With little movement on time spent on the EHR outside of work, this signals an urgent need to find solutions to reduce physicians’ pajama time," the report said.
Some physicians may be prone to undertaking more pajama time based on their specialty and number of years out of training. Respondents who were one to five years out of training reported a 60.4-hour workweek.
Three specialties also reported longer-than-average workweeks:
Hospital medicine: 67.3 hours
Internal medicine: 59.8 hours
Obstetrics and gynecology: 59.1 hours