Posted by Bridget on October, 19 2015 in Healthcare

Burnout or overall exhaustion combined with decreased interest in work, has been linked to increased errors and the soaring attrition rate of medical professionals. Burnout in the medical field, particularly in academic medicine, has to do with the greuling hours as well as the intense pressure to publish, complete research and write grants on top of physician duties. However, Stanford's Department of Emergency Medicine has come up with an elegant solution: "time banking". Simply put, doctors can "bank" time spent on duties above and beyond physician duties (such as grant writing, serving on committees or covering shifts) in order to earn credits that can be used for services such as meals, houscleaning, elder or child care, movie tickets, writing help and more. With luck, this program will continue to succeed and spread across the country and through varying institutions. For the full article see: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2015/08/20/the-innovative-stanford-program-thats-saving-emergency-room-doctors-from-burnout/