Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic upon self-reported physician burnout in Ontario, Canada: evidence from a repeated cross-sectional survey

OBJECTIVES: To estimate the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic on levels of burnout among physicians in Ontario, Canada, and to understand physician perceptions of the contributors and solutions to burnout. DESIGN: Repeated cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Active and retired physicians, residents and medical students in Canada’s largest province were invited to participate in an online survey via an email newsletter. PARTICIPANTS: In the first survey wave (March 2020), 1400 members responded (representing 76.3% of those who could be confirmed to have received the survey and 3.1% of total membership). In the second wave (March 2021), 2638 responded (75.9% of confirmed survey recipients and 5.8% of membership). KEY OUTCOME MEASURE: Level of burnout was assessed using a validated, single-item, self-defined burnout measure where options ranged from 1 (no symptoms of burnout) to 5 (completely burned out). RESULTS: The overall rate of high levels of burnout (self-reported levels 4–5) increased from 28.0% in 2020 (99% CI: 24.3% to 31.7%) to 34.7% in 2021 (99% CI: 31.8% to 37.7%), a 1-year increase of 6.8 percentage points (p<0.01). After a full year of practising during the COVID-19 pandemic, respondents ranked ‘patient expectations/patient accountability’, ‘reporting and administrative obligations’ and ‘practice environment’ as the three factors that contributed most to burnout. Respondents ranked ‘streamline and reduce required documentation/administrative work’, ‘provide fair compensation’ and ‘improve work–life balance’ as the three most important solutions. CONCLUSIONS: During the first 12 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, prevalence of high levels of burnout had significantly increased. The contributors and solutions ranked highest by physicians were system-level or organisational in nature.