A Successful Sabbatical Program to Reduce Burnout in Emergency Medicine Physicians

Health care organizations continue to search for solutions to mitigate physician burnout and its effect on provider mental health, turnover, and patient care. Emergency Care Specialists, a large independent emergency medicine practice based in Michigan, has found that the creation of a sabbatical program of recurrent month-long blocks of paid time off has resulted in sustained career satisfaction, extremely low rates of physician attrition, and decreased feelings of burnout. A program of this nature can be initiated by other health care entities in a cost-effective manner.