Thirty-one percent of rheumatologists spend 10 to 14 hours per week on paperwork, 14% spend 15 to 19 hours, and 22% spend 20 hours or more. This is similar to oncologists, 20% of whom spend 20 or more hours on paperwork.
According to Dr. Bolster, who is also the chair of the ACR Committee on Training and Workforce Issues, rheumatologists spend an increasing amount of time in the current healthcare environment filling out preauthorization forms for medications and diagnostic studies, and there are additional stressors around documentation in the electronic health record and the way that patient visits are recorded.
The most rewarding aspects of rheumatology are “being very good at what I do/finding answers, diagnoses” (49%) and “gratitude/relationships with patients” (26%). This compares with physicians overall at 34% and 31%, respectively.
“Rheumatology is an outpatient specialty, and [happiness relates to] home life satisfaction and stability in relationships, and I think rheumatologists ranked highly in that,” Dr. Bolster said. “It’s also the sense of reward we have in taking care of our patients that gives us a sense of satisfaction, and that contributes to less burnout because we’re happier at work doing what we like to do.”
Kimberly J. Retzlaff is a medical journalist based in Denver.
