The AMA collects physician-reported data through the AMA Organizational Biopsy® to understand how physicians perceive their work environment, including workload, practice efficiency, culture, leadership and team functioning. Meanwhile, Atalan’s Clinician Retention Intelligence platform analyzes operational workforce and practice data that provides insight into what is happening in physicians’ day-to-day work.
Now the two organizations are coming together in a new collaboration: The Physician Retention, Optimization, and Growth: Real-world Evidence and Sentiment Synthesis (PROGRESS) Study.
The goal of the collaboration is to help health systems better understand what drives physician retention, workforce stability and organizational success and generate evidence that can help organizations identify actionable opportunities to strengthen the physician experience and workforce stability
“Instead of looking only at what physicians report or only at operational measures, we can examine how those signals align—and where they diverge. That gives us a more complete picture of the physician experience and can help us identify where health systems have the greatest opportunity to improve the practice environment and strengthen retention,” said Heather Farley, MD, MHCDS, the AMA’s group vice president of professional satisfaction and practice sustainability.
The collaboration comes at a time when health systems are increasingly recognizing that physician well-being, workforce stability, patient access and organizational performance are closely connected, said AMA President Willie Underwood III, MD, MSc, MPH.
“By bringing together physician perspectives and objective practice data, the PROGRESS Study aims to deepen understanding of the factors that shape the physician experience and influence long-term organizational success,” he said.
Researchers will use Atalan’s Clinician Retention Intelligence platform to examine how physician reported experiences align, or diverge, from day-to-day practice operational measures and then identify factors associated with retention. The platform helps organizations understand where workforce challenges exist, what operational factors are driving them and which actions are most likely to improve outcomes. The goal is to help leaders identify and address modifiable workplace factors that contribute to burnout and turnover risk earlier—creating the conditions for physicians to thrive and sustain long, fulfilling careers.
“Physician retention is one of the most pressing challenges facing health systems today,” said Tiffany Chan, CEO and founder of Atalan. “This collaboration creates an opportunity to generate meaningful evidence on how physician experience relates to workforce retention and organizational performance at scale.”
Previously unmade connections
While some studies have helped make a connection to how a physician’s stated intent to leave or retire early translates to actual turnover occurring, the data isn’t as robust as researchers would like.
The PROGRESS Study, Dr. Farley said, will allow researchers to connect three different things: what physicians tell researchers about their experience, what their work looks like operationally in real time and what subsequently happens with retention.
“So, for example, we can ask whether physicians who report burnout or an intention to leave their organization also demonstrate higher than predicted turnover risk and then whether they actually leave. We’ll be able to connect the dots in a way that is difficult to do when the data are examined separately,” she said. “We can examine which workplace factors—things like workload, schedule control, EHR and documentation burden, team functioning and organizational culture—are most strongly associated with actual retention outcomes.”
Bringing these data together can also provide a more nuanced understanding of what is contributing to physicians’ day-to-day experience, Dr. Farley said.
“So, a physician may report a significant EHR burden, for example, and we can examine that alongside actual patters of documentation or after hours EHR activities and that gives us a more complete picture of the specific factors leading to the physician feeling this excessive EHR burden,” she said. “Both of those pieces—the reported experience and the operational data—are important and together they tell us a richer, more nuanced story than either one does alone.”
The PROGRESS Study research team is in conversations with a number of health systems about participating in the study. Learn more at the Atalan website.
Why this collaboration matters
In addition to creating challenges for patient access to care, workforce stability and organizational performance, physician turnover can cost organizations anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million per physician, one AMA study estimates.
That estimate includes recruitment, onboarding, lost productivity and related costs.
Earlier studies suggest that physicians are more likely to want to stay with an organization when they work in an efficient, well-supported practice environment, trust their leaders and colleagues, feel a sense of belonging, and have meaningful control and agency in their work..
The PROGRESS Study provides an opportunity to answer some of the biggest questions that still remain: What are the earliest actionable signals that a physician may be at risk of leaving and which of those factors can an organization actually change?
“Intention to leave is not the same thing as actually leaving and the factors that make someone consider leaving may not be identical to the factors that ultimately make them stay,” Dr. Farley said. “So, we want to better understand what is most predictive of actual retention and, importantly, where is the biggest opportunity to intervene, whether that is workload, team structure, leadership and culture, scheduling flexibility, practice efficiency or other factors.”
Ultimately the goal, she said, is “to identify actionable opportunities to create practice environments where physicians have the conditions they need to do their best work—and want to stay.”
Smart physician retention moves in action
A number of health systems—all part of the AMA Health System Member Program, which provides enterprise solutions to equip leadership, physicians and care teams with resources to help drive the future of medicine—are making work more purposeful, more sustainable and better supported for physicians and showing that it is possible to recruit and retain dedicated physicians.
Here are some ways that health systems are investing in culture, mentorship and innovation to attract and keep physicians.
Bayhealth, in Central Delaware, is a rapidly growing health system that is using community engagement to help bolster physician recruitment and retain physicians.
CenterWell and Conviva Senior Primary Care, which operate in 15 states, are investing in education and leadership to help inspire physicians to be the best they can be and help keep physicians from leaving.
HCA Healthcare, a Nashville, Tennessee-based health system with 190 hospitals, more than 2,500 care sites across 20 states and more than 44,000 physicians, offers training and support tools such as augmented intelligence (AI) to help reduce physician burdens and retain physicians.
With recruitment and retention top strategic priorities in healthcare, the AMA is reducing physician burnout by removing administrative burdens and providing real-world solutions to help doctors rediscover the Joy in Medicine®.
