Post 2008 Crash Medical Professional Burnout....
I'm a custom software developer in the medical field. I tend to work at the departmental level for massive hospital systems.
I read Are_grits_groceries thread about hospital apathy to human suffering here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2344938
It's real. It's widespread. It's probably going to get worse before it gets better. Here's what is happening:
After the 2008 crash, hospitals took a meat ax to their staffs. 20%, 30% sometimes 50% or more of staffs were cut. Direct care less, support staff more. Now, there's always some deadwood in any organization and small cuts can be absorbed with little changes in care. But when you cut at the levels that were done, you put ENORMOUS strain on the remaining staff. Good people can maintain for a while, but it's been 4+ years now and burnout is setting in.
Sometimes an event occurs, and the results are immediate. But, in this case, it's taken a bit of time for the worse effects to start showing up. That time is now.
I just got off the phone with a high level colleague and the strain is starting to hit the upper-mid-level management. I'm here to tell you that if something isn't done soon, our medical system, as bad as it is, will crash, possibly irretrievably.
= new reply since forum marked as read
2%. Just in time for the end of the 2% FICA holiday.
It seems more than half the staff has serious health issues themselves. They've lost about half their phlebotomists in the last year, all but one to serious illness. One quit without notice the moment she sold her house, and moved back home to Canada.
We're in the backstabbing mode of downsizing, which could continue for some time. They are closing the ER of our sister hospital, which will keep the hospital where I work afloat and crazy a while longer. It will likely also increase the speed of burnout. In the meantime, we're losing regular, insured patients to the larger hospitals to our south now that we're off the state's "preferred vendor" list. We lose money on Medicare patients which used to be made up for by the insured. Now we just lose money I guess 
Edited to add while there weren't direct cuts to staffing, there is downsizing by attrition. Sprinting an 8-hour marathon is one thing. Doing that 5 days/week is another. Night shift is 13 hours, with your body screaming for sleep. Try sprinting 13 hours at a stretch a few nights/week. Eventually, it all comes down to survival.
There's a whole list of problems ( http://www.lean.org/shook/displayobject.cfm?o=1274 ) that contribute to that. All I can think is that, hopefully, the ACA will turn the big ship around at last.
I don't know what that will mean for providers, but I know there's not a darn thing I can do as far as paying more for services.
