By Healthcare Facilities Today

Hospitals' physician lounges that used to be places where doctors would gather have grown deserted, according to a report in The Atlantic reported on the Becker's Hospital Review website.

If a hospital still does have a physician lounge today, it increasingly represents "a place where physicians are alone," according to the article. The space is no longer the hub for building relationships with colleagues.

The lounge was once a base of operations for physicians who came to the hospital to round on patients or perform procedures, according to the Atlantic article. Physician workloads have grown from year to year, electronic paperwork has become more time-consuming and the sheer complexity of medicine has increased, as well. 

But the decline of the physician lounge also means young physicians are facing higher rates of dissatisfaction and burnout, the article said.  Without a place to interact regularly with their colleagues, physicians are increasingly facing a profession that "resembles a collection of silos," according to the report. 

The medical field needs to better promote interdisciplinary interaction. "If I were a patient choosing a hospital, I would want to know if it had a lively doctors' lounge," said Atlantic correspondent Richard Gunderman, MD, PhD.

Read the article.