SHM Supports the Passage of the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Reauthorization Act (S. 266)
February 04, 2025
U.S. Senate
231 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
U.S. Senate
185 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
U.S. Senate
728 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
U.S. Senate
479A Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senators Kaine, Young, Reed, and Marshall,
The Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM), representing the nation’s hospitalists, applauds your reintroduction of the reauthorization of the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Reauthorization Act (S. 266). Named after Dr. Lorna Breen, a physician who committed suicide in the midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic, this bipartisan legislation begins to address the rapidly expanding issue of burnout among healthcare professionals.
This bill establishes grants that support training in strategies to reduce and prevent suicide, burnout, behavioral health conditions, and substance use disorders among healthcare professionals. Furthermore, this legislation provides funding for programs to educate and promote mental and behavioral health in the healthcare workforce.
Hospitalists are front-line clinicians in America’s acute care hospitals and focus on the general medical care of hospitalized patients. Rates of burnout were high and rising prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Challenges like staffing shortages, exceedingly high patient volumes, and stigma surrounding mental health care and treatment further contribute to rising rates of burnout in the healthcare profession, with rates as high as 45% of hospitalists reporting burnout and nearly three-quarters of them not feeling professional fulfilment, according to SHM’s 2024 Hospital Medicine Workforce Experience Report. The mental health and wellbeing of our healthcare workforce is in crisis and requires continued action.
The signing of the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act into law in 2022 was an important first step – but we need to pass the reauthorization to ensure continued access to these vital mental health resources.
SHM supports the reauthorization of the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act because hospitalists and other healthcare workers deserve and require continued access to mental health support services. We are pleased to support this legislation and stand ready to support its passage.
Sincerely,
Flora Kisuule, MD, MPH, SFHM
President, Society of Hospital Medicine