Physician Burnοut: An indirect indicatοr abοut the Health System perfοrmance

ABSTRACT Physicians’ Burnout Syndrome is an early indicator about the health system malfunction and it may be a useful tool for the decision makers in health sector. By monitoring physicians’ burnout, the various threats-risks can be identified and dealt with in a cost-effective manner before patient’s care be disturbed. Burnout syndrome is an important issue in doctors’ workplace and the exposure to long hours of clinical work demonstrates a dose-dependent effect with exhaustion, thus indicating the cause and effect. Burnout Syndrome is also the factor most closely associated with physicians' decisions about their withdrawal from clinical practice, either physically or psychologically, with adverse effects on access, continuity of care, patient satisfaction, productivity as well as the cost. Preventing such situations through the introduction of burnout "detectors" in the field of health is of paramount importance. Burnout "detectors" can be used to evaluate doctors’ workplace and reveal the issues/causes responsible for the Burnout Syndrome phenomenon