ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVES:To measure the burnout of doctors affiliated with western medicine (WM) and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) hospitals and to evaluate its relationships with organisational and patient factors. DESIGN:A national cross-sectional study in China. SETTING:By convenience sampling, this study was conducted in 64 general hospitals from six provinces and Beijing between July 2014 and April 2015. There were a total of 2576 eligible participants, including 1766 WM doctors and 810 TCM doctors in this study. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES:Burnout symptoms of emotional exhaustion, job involvement and personal accomplishment were measured. RESULTS:In total, 73.6% of doctors reported emotional exhaustion, the core component of burnout. In multivariable models, emotional exhaustion was significantly associated with organisational factors, including salary fairness [WM: odds ratio (OR)=2.36, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.80 to 3.09; TCM: OR=1.59, 95%?CI: 1.08 to 2.33], participation in organisational decision-making (WM: OR=1.58, 95%?CI: 1.21 to 2.08; TCM: OR=1.84, 95%?CI: 1.23 to 2.74), professional value (WM: OR=1.74, 95%?CI: 1.35 to 2.25), frequency of participation in full-time training (TCM: OR=1.48, 95%?CI: 1.01 to 2.16) and frequency of participation in clinical meetings (WM: OR=1.53, 95%?CI: 1.11 to 2.10; TCM: OR=2.48, 95%?CI: 1.57 to 3.92). Patient factors are also associated with burnout among both WM and TCM doctors, including respect (WM: OR=1.73, 95%?CI: 1.31 to 2.28; TCM: OR=1.65, 95%?CI: 1.10 to 2.45) and unreasonable demands (WM: OR=2.31, 95%?CI: 1.68 to 3.20; TCM: OR=3.44, 95%?CI: 2.15 to 5.49). Moreover, job involvement and personal accomplishment among both WM and TCM doctors were significantly associated with organisational and patient factors. CONCLUSIONS:Our results suggest that improving organisational management and patient behaviours may be beneficial to reduce doctors' burnout. Our findings require further validation in different organisational settings.