New study shows heavy financial toll of burnout

Workplace burnout is costing the veterinary industry two billion dollars a year, according to research from the Cornell Center for Veterinary Business and Entrepreneurship.

“Putting a price tag on how this very human issue affects veterinarians and technicians makes it tangible,” says Dr. Clinton Neill, assistant professor of veterinary economics and management, who leads the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine’s research in this arena and authored a foundational study with the American Veterinary Medical Association examining the economic cost of burnout.

Two billion dollars in lost revenue is almost 4% of the industry’s entire value. The cost includes both veterinarians and technicians, each accounting for approximately $1B of dollars lost per group.

Neill’s research showed that over half of veterinarians suffered from burnout. Using 2016-2020 AVMA survey data comprising 15,315 responses to calculate burnout prevalence, turnover and reduced work hours, the researchers found that the cost of burnout per veterinarian ranges from $17,000-25,000 a year. This is a conservative estimate, Neill says, and that the reasonable cost is between two-thirds and three-quarters of a veterinarian’s salary.

“There are multiple factors that contribute to a person’s burnout levels,” Neill says. “For veterinarians, debt especially is an additional stressor for mental health.”

Burnout rates were high even before the coronavirus pandemic hit, and data coming out now shows that it worsened the issue, Neill adds. “Although the pandemic’s effect on turnover is subsiding some, the health and well-being of the veterinary workforce is still a top issue for the profession.”

Ultimately, this research is laying important groundwork on burnout for industry-wide change. Neill and his colleagues anticipate that the steps the industry takes to address burnout will have a much more affordable economic cost than burnout itself. For now, however, they are letting that price tag sink in for the field at large.

Support for this and upcoming studies was provided by the AVMA and Zoetis.

The full version of this article appears on the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine website.