A program to retrain retiring specialists for part-time careers in adult primary care could bolster care teams in established physicians practices, community health centers, and retail health clinics.
Is there such a thing as too much golf?
The majority (60%) of physicians say they would retire today if they could, [PDF] according to The Physicians Foundation.
But more than half have more realistic plans to cut back on patients, work part-time, switch to concierge medicine, or retire.
The survey found that primary care physicians are generally more positive about their profession than specialists, even though they are facing some of the same stressors, and are paid on average 30% less.
See Also: How the Medical Home May Save Primary Care
What if retiring specialists could make a small leap and instead of leaving medicine completely, take on the challenge of primary care?
That's the question that stood out to Leonard Glass, MD, a retired plastic surgeon in his late seventies, when he was reading about the primary care physician shortage in the newspaper one day. Glass wondered if someone like him could go back to primary care to be a part of the solution.
"Why can't we dip into the tens of thousands of retired physicians out there who are still capable to do productive work and utilize the Internet and software to retrain them for work in primary care?" says Glass.
This August, Glass launched Physician Retraining & Reentry, an online course for seasoned specialists to retrain for part-time careers in adult primary care. The course provides an individual-directed curriculum covering all angles of family medicine, and tests students with exams at the end of each of the 15 modules. The only time students are required to attend in person is for a final clinical exam at the UC San Diego School of Medicine primary care simulation lab.
"We think this program is not appropriate for medical students, interns, or residents, [instead it is for] seasoned physicians who want to relearn at a modern level the things they were taught 20 or 30 years ago as an intern at a hospital," says Glass. "Most of those things have changed dramatically, so they have to be brought up to date. But they are a seasoned physician, so they already know how to talk to patients and take a history and they understand the concept of diseases."
The end goal for the program is to produce primary care physicians qualified for part-time work at already established practices, community health centers, and retail health clinics. Glass says providing physicians with this option for a semi-retired life in medicine allows physicians to get back to what they love to do, treating patients, without the attendant stress of running a practice themselves or of being overburdened at the end of their careers.
The concept of retraining retiring physicians isn't entirely new, but this program's coursework and online design takes an innovative approach. One student has completed the course so far: a 78-year-old retired plastic surgeon like Glass. Seven retired physicians are currently enrolled ; their average age is in the mid-60s.
Glass enlisted the help of professional connections he's made over the years at the UC San Diego School of Medicine to help him build the curriculum and find the faculty for the program. Professors David Emil Joseph Bazzo, MD, and William Norcross, MD, at UC San Diego's Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, were instrumental.
Bazzo and Norcross are both nationally recognized for their work at the UCSD's Physician Assessment and Clinical Education Program (PACE), which retrains physicians whose licenses have been jeopardized by behavioral issues. They are joined by ten additional family physician faculty members from UCSD School of Medicine, who are available for student inquiries and questions throughout the course.
Glass says students can complete the course in four or five months, if they dedicate four hours a day, five days a week to the material and exam work. But students are allowed a year to complete the course.
The cost for the program is a steal at $7,500, compared to medical schools that offer similar options for the $20,000 range. Plus, the convenience of the online coursework, and the ability to set an individual pace, appeals to the retiring physician, says Glass.
Part of the program's career-matching program will pay employers to regularly evaluate PRR graduates, so the team will receive regular feedback on the effectiveness of their primary care education.
With a goal for 100 students to complete the course in a year, Glass hopes his program could be an option not only for individual physicians, but for health systems and healthcare employers that might see this as an alternative for physicians close to their retirement years.
"The old school physician says you really can't educate people to be a primary care physician without them being on campus for 3 to 12 months where they regularly go to clinics. They say that's the only way it can be done. We don't agree with that. We think it can be done online and effectively and affordably, and we can enroll many more students than the two or three slots most medical schools have available for a retraining programs like this," says Glass.
When asked whether Baby Boomers might find the online learning style intimidating, Glass admits it might deter potential students from signing up. But with technical support and faculty available 24/7, Glass hopes the program can provide all the necessary help to get over that hurdle.
Questions still remain whether this education model is enough to sufficiently train this population of physicians to practice primary care. Some worry about the quality of patient care, but incentivizing physicians to stay in the workforce is better than no care or delayed care.
The ultimate test will be when Glass enrolls himself in January, eight years into his retirement and 50 years after medical school.
Chelsea Rice is an associate editor for HealthLeaders Media.
