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Telemedicine Jobs: The Future of Healthcare

Telemedicine Jobs: The Future of Healthcare

Fittingly titled "Death by 1000 Cuts," the Medscape 2021 Physician Burnout & Suicide was released on January 22, 2021. In it, the team at Medscape documents the devastating effect of the pandemic has had on our front-line healthcare providers. 

Some choice findings:

  • 51% of critical care providers are experiencing burnout along with 49% of infectious disease specialists
  • 51% of female providers are burned out compared to 36% of male providers
  • 79% of burned out physicians state their burnout predated the pandemic while 21% directly attribute it to the pandemic
  • The top two contributing factors to physician burn out were "too many bureaucratic tasks" (58%) and "spending too many hours at work" (37%)
  • Over double the amount of providers rank themselves as "very unhappy" compared to the start of the pandemic
  • 42% of burned out providers stated that "more manageable work and schedule" would most help to reduce burnout whereas another 35% cited "increased control/autonomy" 
  • "Work-life balance" was chosen as the workplace issue that concerns providers the most

When we spoke to the Chief Medical Officer of a prominent telemedicine company, an early adopter of telemedicine, he felt that "moving the entire experience over a digital medium allows for us to design a more effective and efficient work flow. We've developed more creative ways in which we can...mitigate bureaucratic tasks."

We've also seen how providers who are also new mothers and caregivers have leveraged the flexibility of telemedicine jobs to provide care to their families while simultaneously being able to actively participate in a career that they have dedicated years of their life to.

A report from Frost & Sullivan revealed that telemedicine grew 64.3% in 2020, accelerating the growth of telemedicine and digital health by years in a manner of only a few short months.

With the field of digital health expanding rapidly, it's only natural that providers will gravitate towards a field that can restore their work life balance.

With a flexible schedule, more efficient work-flow, pared down bureaucratic tasks, and increased provider autonomy, telemedicine is well-positioned to provide healthcare workers an alternative career model than the old paradigm that they trained in.

Given the rates of burn out, maybe that's not such a bad thing.

 

Are you a healthcare provider and would like to share your experience working a telemedicine job? We would love to hear from you! Please feel free to reach out to us at support@teledocjobs.com