Estimating the Attributable Cost of Physician Burnout in the United States

The bottom line

Physician burnout costs the US system an estimated $4.6 billion annually — about $7,600 per employed physician per year even when nobody leaves, through turnover risk and reduced clinical effort. That per-head figure gives leaders a defensible baseline for sizing prevention budgets. The estimate is model-based, pre-COVID, and not broken out for anesthesiology, so treat it as an order of magnitude.

What the source found

Estimated burnout-related turnover and reduced clinical effort cost the U.S. healthcare system approximately $4.6 billion annually; on a per-physician basis, roughly $7,600 per employed physician per year regardless of whether that physician actually leaves.

Limitations and applicability

National cost-modeling study; physician-general; anesthesiology-specific costs not separately reported; model assumptions affect magnitudes; 2019 publication predates COVID-era escalation.

Population and setting

U.S. physicians (cost modeling)

Used in FairShare guides

• The Real Cost of Losing an Anesthesiologist: What the Data Says

About this evidence

Research question / practical issue

How does this source inform Retention and the Anesthesia Workforce for the population it studied?

Study design, evidence tier, and source class

Peer Reviewed Cost Analysis · primary source · evidence tier 2

Source type: Peer Reviewed Cost Analysis · primary · Evidence tier 2

Topics: Retention and the Anesthesia Workforce

Audience: Department Leaders