The largest financial impact of physician burnout for a health care organization is likely due not its effect on turnover but its effect on physician productivity. This dimension is difficult to fully quantify.

In a longitudinal study of 2500 physicians at Mayo Clinic, each 1-point increase in burnout (on a 7-point scale) or 1-point decrease in professional satisfaction (on a 5-point scale)was associated with a 30% to 50% in increase likelihood that physicians would reduce their professional work effort over the following 24 months as independently assessed by payroll records. Although subsequent follow-up 1 to 2 years later indicated that reducing work effort is an effective strategy to reduce burnout for individual physicians, it comes at a substantial financial cost to the organization.