Thanks at least in part to healthcare reform initiatives, physician groups are beginning to hire again, the 2010 Physician Retention Survey from the American Medical Group Association shows.
Eighty-three percent of the responding medical groups said that they will hire more or significantly more primary care physicians, specialist and advanced practitioners in 2011. Nearly as many said they will be hiring more or significantly more specialists (79%) and advanced practitioners (78%).
The number one hiring priority over the next 12 months is internal medicine followed by family medicine.
Medical groups are also increasing their physician count by acquiring independent practices. Almost 60% of the survey respondents said they were actively seeking practices to acquire or integrate into their medical group.
The online survey of AMGA member organizations drew a small response from 62 medical groups employing an estimated 18,000 physicians. Survey size means some of the findings aren't statistically significant but some general trends affecting physician retention and recruitment may be identified. The survey will be available on-line from AMGA on May 1.
Medical groups with 51-500 physicians accounted for 69% of the respondents. Physician-owned groups accounted for 39%; integrated delivery systems (27%), hospitals (19%) and academic/foundation ownership represented 15% of the responding groups.
Among the findings:
Turnover rates have increased slightly. The average turnover rate for 2010 was 6.1%, which matches the 2008 rate before the economy began to freefall and is slightly ahead of 2009's 5.9%. Historically, physicians have been most likely to change practices after three years. The reasons vary and include career motivation and family satisfaction with the practice location. The 2010 survey found that almost 13% of responding groups were seeing turnovers after just one to two years of practice. That's a concern because it may reflect failures to adequately access physician prospects during the hiring process.
According to the survey, 78% of the turnovers were voluntary while retirement accounted for 10%. Turnover among physicians can cost a practice as much as $1.3 million per physician, including $990,000 in lost downstream revenue, $61,000 in recruiting costs and $211,000 in start up costs for the new hire.
Mentoring may reduce turnover. The majority of medical groups (73.8%) believe mentoring reduces turnover, but just more than half (56.1%) actually assign a mentor to newly hired physicians. The turnover rate was 5.3% for groups that have written mentor goals and guidelines compared to 6.3% for those who do not assign a mentor.
Margaret Dick Tocknell is a reporter/editor with HealthLeaders Media.
