Pandemic-Era Burnout: Telehealth Managers Get Pushed to the Max

In 2020, telemedicine truly, finally hit the mainstream in the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic essentially forced healthcare provider organizations, the government, and payers to embrace telehealth as an essential way to enable physicians to see patients.

With much of the country shut down earlier this year, the typical number of weekly virtual care visits grew from dozens to hundreds to thousands at hospitals and health systems across the country.

While telemedicine technology was a godsend during this pandemic, it did come with aspects that hurt providers’ ability to cope with the kinds of stress that lead to burnout.

Telemedicine can hurt coping with stress in several ways, said Deluca of Upstate Medical University. With telemedicine, a provider often is isolated from clinical staff. Deluca finds that socialization (safely, of course, under current circumstances) helps with stress.