AMA president talks about hospitals and the well-being of doctors

Doctors find satisfaction in taking care of their patients, and they are worn down by the obstacles that keep them from doing what they love.

Whether it’s spending too much time on documentation or battling with insurers, doctors can lose their joy and passion, says Bobby Mukkamala, MD, president of the American Medical Association.

“I went to medical school because I love taking care of patients, and then we start taking care of patients … we have to deal with all of these headwinds,” he says.

The AMA is recognizing hospitals that are putting a priority on the well-being of their physicians in its Joy in Medicine Health System Recognition Program. The group just announced its 2025 recipients, a group of 109 hospitals, health systems, and medical groups that are succeeding in protecting the well-being of their doctors.

The joy in medicine program was created to “look and see which institutions, which hospitals, are interested in improving the quality of physicians’ satisfaction, with taking care of their patients and other health care workers,” Mukkamala says.

In an interview with Chief Healthcare Executive®, Mukkamala talked about the stress on physicians and how hospitals can help their doctors.

As Mukkamala says, “It's definitely going in the right direction for hospitals to say, ‘You know what? We know physicians are frustrated. What can we do to decrease that level of frustration?’”

(See part of our conversation in this video. The story continues below.)

‘Change in the mindset’

A board-certified otolaryngologist, Mukkamala was elected president of the American Medical Association in June. He’s embracing the role in championing the health of doctors.

Burnout among doctors has dropped in the past few years, but that’s not exactly an indication that the problem has been solved. An AMA survey in 2023 found 45% of physicians reporting a symptom of burnout, down from 63% in 2021. Healthcare leaders, including Mukkamala, say it remains a serious problem, and they note burnout continues to be higher than pre-pandemic levels.

• Read more: Physician burnout isn’t getting worse, but that’s not exactly a win

The hospitals and providers recognized in the Joy In Medicine program are looking to see how to support leadership in physicians “so we have a voice,” Mukkamala says.

Hospitals that want to help their physicians are taking steps to help doctors do their best. They’re streamlining the number of clicks and phone calls it takes to get medication for patients, he says.

They’re also enabling doctors to look at patients face-to-face, rather than being focused on a computer monitor and typing on a keyboard.

Hospital leadership must make the well-being of their physicians a priority, and Mukkamala says that’s a key element the AMA evaluates in its Joy of Medicine recognition.

“That's what we assess,” he says. “Is this a change in the mindset of everybody that's working at this place to preserve the satisfaction of healthcare workers and particularly doctors, or is it just sort of a sign on a door that says, ‘Hey, if you're not satisfied, knock on this door, and we'll see what we can do.’”

“I mean, there's a big difference in the ability of one person in an office versus the entire administration and leadership of a hospital or healthcare setting to be able to accomplish that,” Mukkamala says.

Smaller hospitals and health systems may not have the resources of larger institutions in supporting staff, but they still can take steps to help their doctors, he says.

Even if they can’t appoint wellness officers, they can simply pay attention to the satisfaction of their staff.

“This is a culture change,” Mukkamala says. “If you have a small institution doing anything, and the culture is, you know what, we want our workers to be happier? That's something you can do with an employer that has 10 people or 1,000 people. It's done in different ways. But it doesn't mean that shouldn't be the mindset.”

The AMA offers tools to help hospitals and other providers in improving well-being, he notes.

Fixing the workplace

Hospitals have been pressed by doctors and nurses to improve their work environment.

Some have bristled at initiatives meant to build more resilience in their staff, while paying little attention to the conditions affecting the health of their workers.

Physician and nurse leaders point out that staff who made it through the COVID-19 pandemic and are still on the job aren’t lacking in toughness.

Mukkamala says hospitals make a mistake if they are just looking at helping doctors deal with the headwinds “as opposed to dealing with the headwind itself.”

“That's very misguided,” he says. “That's what causes that burnout.”

Doctors can be worn down and depressed by dealing with battles with insurers to get approval for treatments. Many cite dealing with the process of prior authorization as a key contributor to burnout. Doctors are also spending long hours documenting patient records, including what is ruefully called “pajama time.”

Even well-intentioned guidance, such as telling doctors to seek assistance with their mental health, doesn’t address the challenges that are making it harder to practice.

“To tell me to go and see somebody about my mental health and the suffering that I'm going through because of my patient's suffering, versus dealing with the cause of that patient's suffering ….. I mean, it's totally misguided to say that you just need to be tougher dealing with this,” he says.

Hospitals and health systems also face a problem with high levels of violence, and some healthcare leaders say the problem is getting worse.

Mukkamala says healthcare violence could lead to greater numbers of doctors reporting burnout.

“For the hospital to not protect us by one, improving the situation, and two, looking at the causes of that violence, then that's a failure of the hospital system,” he says. “And that's why we need to pay attention to that, so we don't cause physical injury, and on top of that mental injury, that leads to us saying, ‘You know what? I'm done. I'm not going to practice anymore.”

The violence in hospitals and health systems could exacerbate the nation’s physician shortage, Mukkamala fears.

“It's one thing to deal with prior authorization. That's bad enough. But to have somebody threatening me or actually hurting me is even worse,” he says.

“And we have to deal with all of these things, and that's the role of the American Medical Association,” Mukkamala adds. “I mean, we can walk and chew gum at the same time. We can deal with things like talking about the violence like we are today, and we can deal with … not just physical damage, but mental health issues, dealing with things like prior authorization and burnout.”