AMA to support reducing system-level drivers of doctor burnout

Physicians pride themselves on the quality of the care they provide, but excessive patient volumes and overly demanding scheduling requirements can wreak havoc on their patients’ safety and, correspondingly, their own well-being.

And it isn’t just the pace of patient visits that’s an issue. Inefficient practice environments, the demands of documentation and nagging administrative tasks further compress time available for safe and thorough patient care.

At 2026 AMA Annual Meeting in Chicago this week, the House of Delegates took steps to build on previous efforts to support reducing system-level drivers of burnout, ensure a safe workplace, and promote flexibility and autonomy in practice conditions.

The AMA Code of Medical Ethics has several opinions related to keeping workload, fatigue and time pressure from contributing to medical error and patient-safety events. These include:

• Opinion 1.1.6, “Quality,” which affirms that physicians have an ethical obligation to provide safe, effective and high-quality care, which may be compromised under conditions of excessive workload.
• Opinion 1.1.1, “Patient-Physician Relationships,” which requires physicians to place patient welfare above external influences, including administrative or financial pressures that may drive unsafe scheduling practices.
• Opinion 9.3.1, “Physician Health and Wellness,” which states that when physician health or wellness is compromised, the safety and effectiveness of patient care may also be compromised.

The House of Delegates took several actions to further address physician workload and scheduling.

Among these, delegates adopted new policy to “affirm that physicians have the have the professional right and authority, notwithstanding extraordinary situations such as mass casualty incidents and disasters, to decline, modify or limit administratively determined patient-volume expectations, scheduling mandates and staffing conditions when the physician, utilizing their clinical judgment, believes these conditions would harm patients or negatively impact patient-centered care.”

They also directed the AMA to “advocate for and support state and federal legislation or regulation that ensures local practicing physicians direct and control the development and implementation of patient scheduling protocols, workload standards, patient panel limits and clinical staffing models within their practices and health systems, based on clinical complexity, time required for direct and indirect care, and safe practice standards rather than productivity or revenue targets.”

As the leader in physician well-being, the AMA is reducing physician burnout by removing administrative burdens and providing real-world solutions to help doctors rediscover the Joy in Medicine®.

Recognize all that physicians do
So much of business of medicine these days is driven by data, yet the full contributions of physicians are often overlooked because of an emphasis on performance benchmarks. And it isn’t just a matter of not giving physicians their due.

The “relentless focus on productivity metrics has been associated with physician burnout, emotional exhaustion, moral distress and workforce attrition, all of which may threaten patient access to timely, high-quality care,” according to a resolution adopted at the 2026 AMA Annual Meeting.

“Many commonly used productivity systems and metrics emphasize quantifiable outputs while underrecognizing the substantial administrative, educational and operational work, as well as other essential responsibilities, that physicians are expected to perform for hospitals, health systems and other employers that rely on and benefit from these contributions,” the resolution says.

That other work can include in-basket management, care coordination, quality reporting, research and other activities that are often vital to patient care delivery but may not be captured in physician performance measures, setting up tension between employers’ productivity goals and physicians’ broader professional obligations.

Moreover, the resolution notes, “increasing pressure to meet productivity benchmarks has occurred at the same time as expanding clinical and administrative demands, often without corresponding physician time, support or recognition.”

To help safeguard physician workforce sustainability and patient access against the commoditization of medicine, delegates adopted policy directing the AMA to “encourage employers of physicians to utilize productivity benchmarks, performance expectations and compensation structures that recognize and integrate the full scope of physician work, including clinical, administrative, educational and operational responsibilities that may not be fully captured by traditional productivity metrics.”

Delegates also directed the AMA to advocate:

• That health systems, hospitals, other physician employers and third-party payors recognize that the profession of medicine is not a commoditized entity, is fundamentally anchored in the patient-physician relationship and should not be reduced solely to productivity measures.
• For regulatory, employer and practice models that provide both employed and independent physicians with appropriate time, resources, compensation, support and recognition for nonbillable work that is essential to patient care, physician well-being and health system function.

Preventing violence in healthcare workplaces
Another significant and entirely unacceptable stressor for physicians and other health professions is the all-too-real prospect of being assaulted in their workplaces. Nearly three-quarters of all workplace assaults in the U.S. happen in healthcare settings, says a resolution introduced by the American College of Emergency Physicians.

To address this tragic contributor to physician burnout and to protect doctors and other health professionals from violence, the AMA adopted new policy to:

• Recognize workplace violence in healthcare as a national advocacy priority and expand existing AMA policy to support standardized reporting and data-driven prevention strategies.
• Support the aggregation and analysis of workplace-violence data to inform research, benchmarking, and the development of national policies aimed at reducing violence in healthcare settings.
• Seek legislation or craft model state legislation calling for civil or criminal penalties to be established for any healthcare institution or administrator that tries to discourage, or in any way disincentivize, the reporting of workplace violence.

Delegates also directed the AMA to advocate:

• The development and implementation of standardized, mandatory reporting mechanisms for workplace violence incidents across all healthcare settings, with appropriate protections for patient and worker privacy.
• Policies that remove barriers to reporting workplace violence, including protections against retaliation, reduction of disincentives related to institutional liability or reputational concerns, and the establishment of a culture in which all acts of violence against healthcare workers are recognized as unacceptable and reportable regardless of patient condition.
• The development, funding and implementation of evidence-based, trauma-informed strategies to prevent workplace violence and protect the healthcare workforce.

American Medical Association