The Kentucky Senate unanimously passed Senate Bill 12, which aims to prevent burnout among healthcare workers.
The bill, passed Feb. 21, offers protection for Kentucky doctors seeking mental health assistance. It states that they do not need to report their participation in wellness programs, and prevents them from losing their job for not reporting it. However, it does not exempt them from reporting conditions that would affect their judgment.
The bill was first introduced on Jan. 4, and was reviewed again on Feb. 16. It had its final reading on Feb. 21. There it received 34 supporting votes with no votes against it. Two senators abstained from voting: Karen Berg, D-Louisville, and Brandon Smith, R-Hazard. As of Mar. 1, it is awaiting review by Health Services.
“Burnout is a long term reaction marked by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, or lack of accomplishment feeling,” sponsor Sen. Donald Douglas, R-Nicholasville, said during the discussion for the bill. “Some physicians are exposed to life and death decisions and situations every day.”
“The healthcare industry in general, it’s a stressful work environment,” Dr. John Jones, Medical Director of Primary Care Centers of Eastern Kentucky (PCCEK), told WYMT. “COVID kind of shed a light on that, especially when you’re going through a major event, like a global pandemic.”
“I’m really not sure why it’s taken so long to get to this point,” Shannon Herald-Combs, psychiatric nurse practitioner at PCCEK, told WYMT. “We’ve made great strides in taking away the stigma related to it, so I see absolutely no negative benefits to this.”
Dr. Evelyn Montgomery Jones, the president-elect of the Kentucky Medical Association, previously testified before the Senate Standing Committee on Health Services regarding physician burnout, according to the Kentucky Lantern. She listed the consequences of this burnout. They include low patient satisfaction, increased rates of substance abuse and even suicide. She also cited COVID-19 as a significant contributor to physician burnout in recent years.