As retirement age approaches, physicians naturally begin to think about stepping down or scaling back, but recent data from an AMA survey shows that more than one-third of all physicians are considering leaving or reducing their work hours. Alarmingly, this includes a sizable number of younger or midcareer physicians.
More than 12,400 responses from physicians across 31 states were received from more than 80 health systems that participated in the AMA Organizational Biopsy®. The AMA national physician comparison report—which is exclusive data to the AMA that is not published anywhere else—reflects 2023 trends in six key performance indicators: job satisfaction, job stress, burnout, intent to leave an organization, feeling valued by an organization, and total hours spent per week on work-related activities (known as “time spend”).
The purpose of the aggregated data is to provide a national summary of organizational well-being and to serve as a comparison for other health care organizations. The results may be limited by the number of health systems that choose to participate.
From 2022 to 2023, 35.7% of doctors said they had a moderate interest in leaving their current jobs within the next two years, or that they would like to or definitely would leave in that time period, says the national physician comparison report.
Though that figure is down from 39.3% in 2022, intent to leave was highest among physicians who were 20 or more years out of training, at 40.8%. Among part-time physicians, 39.1% reported intention to leave their current position, compared to 34.9% of full-time physicians. Among male physicians, 35.9% reported planning to depart, compared to 33.2% of women.
The physician specialties with the highest intent to leave were:
- Internal medicine: 39.1%.
- Family medicine: 37.3%.
- Obstetrics and gynecology: 34%.
- Hospitalist medicine: 32.9%.
- Emergency medicine: 32.3%.
- Pediatrics: 30.2%.
Among the survey respondents, 35.9% of physicians said they planned to reduce their hours within the next 12 months, a figure that is down from 38.1% in 2022.
As the leader in physician well-being, the AMA is reducing physician burnout by removing administrative burdens and providing real-world solutions to help doctors rediscover the Joy in Medicine™.
At Sanford Health in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 35.5% of physicians reported intending to leave within two years, mirroring statistics at the national level. Sanford Health is a member of the AMA Health System Program, which provides enterprise solutions to equip leadership, physicians and care teams with resources to help drive the future of medicine.
Here is how Sanford Health is taking concrete steps to improve job satisfaction and reduce physicians’ desire to depart or reduce their work hours.
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Provide annual check-ins
Research has shown a link between physicians’ work overload and burnout or intention to leave their jobs.
Heather Spies, MD, an ob-gyn and physician director of clinician experience and well-being at Sanford Health, said that they are encouraging intentional and proactive conversations and investments in relationships between physicians and their leaders to try to better understand their needs.
“Why someone is considering leaving an organization can be complex—it may be different for everybody,” Dr. Spies said.
That is why Sanford Health has instituted annual check-ins for physicians and other health professionals to meet with their department chair and directors individually and also offers additional opportunities to connect as desired.
“Listening, understanding and building trusting relationships are essential to determining how best to help clinicians avoid burnout or alleviate it once it’s happened,” she said. “If people are thinking that they're going to reduce their hours or leave entirely or retire early, or whatever it might be, hopefully those conversations start to occur so that people can look into that more.”
Maintain open communication
Solutions vary, Dr. Spies said, and open communication helps leaders apply individualized solutions. This means having deeper conversations to uncover the reasons why a physician may be considering leaving or reducing their work hours.
“Is it because they are not able to keep up on their charts or their in-baskets? If it’s something operationally adjustable, then we could find ways to enhance teamwork within their clinic or their department,” she said. “Or more specifically, we can use our Epic signal data, which is diving into how much time they’re spending after hours on pajama time. If they’re high and their time spent outside of work on charting or the in-basket is an outlier, then we can talk to them about supporting them further with resources.”
It is “really just looking at all the different things that they might need,” Dr. Spies said. “Then the clinician and their leader can also work better together to have discussions on solutions—some of which may apply to and help other clinicians as well, and some of which may be more unique to a certain physician,” nonphysician provider or specialty.
Discover how Sanford Health keeps pressing on to prevent doctor burnout.
Follow the data
At Sanford Health, intent to leave was highest among those who are 20 years or more posttraining, at 48.9%, and with ob-gyns, at 46.1%. Data from sources such as the upcoming Organizational Biopsy at Sanford Health can help determine what physicians need to thrive in a high-stress, high-stakes environment.
Their previous Organizational Biopsy results have shown, Dr. Spies said, that “the highest turnover rate is in those first couple of years after joining a practice.”
As a result, Sanford Health has invested heavily in new physician orientation and creating a longer onboarding program to make sure everyone feels like they are being integrated into the organization’s culture. It also helps physicians adapt to the community where they live and gets them connected to a mentor or coach if helpful to them.
“Our goal with our clinician experience strategy is to continually look at ways to be intentional about assessing the needs of our clinicians so that if there is a need, we can try to be proactive and provide for that need rather than getting to the point where we're retroactively trying to find out why people are leaving,” Dr. Spies said. “The data is really part of the whole picture of how we need to absolutely support the well-being of our clinicians and at the organizational level, continue to always be watching for those red flags of what might be causing people to want to leave.”
“We want Sanford to be a place where clinicians come and a place where they retire,” she said. “So, it’s really important to us that we’re looking at that whole career spectrum and what we can do in each phase of that spectrum to keep making it better.”
“We have to be ready as leaders in this work to pivot and keep finding ways to reduce administrative burdens and keep the focus on the care of the patient, keep finding ways to recognize clinicians for the great work they do and keep finding ways to help our colleagues have joy in their work,” Dr. Spies added.
Learn more about why organizational well-being key performance indicators matter to your health system’s bottom line.
