The Medicus Firm Blog

August 09 2019

16th Annual Physician Practice Preference & Relocation Survey Released by The Medicus Firm

In May and June of 2019, The Medicus Firm invited a random sampling of physicians and advanced practice clinicians from our proprietary database to participate anonymously in the 2019 Physician Practice Preference & Relocation Survey. A total of 1,903 medical professionals from a variety of specialties responded, and the results revealed notable changes in some areas.

The trend of physicians and advanced practice clinicians being employed by hospitals and health systems continued to increase for the third year in a row. This year, 71% of respondents are employed, compared to 64% last year, and 58% in 2017. The percentage of medical professionals who report that they are definitely or likely making a career change in the next 12 months increased from 19.88% in 2018 to 26.2%.

Fewer physicians and advanced practice clinicians are working more than 50 hours a week – down 7.2% compared to last year. We also noted a 3.78% increase in the number of medical professionals making a personal choice to work less and earn less. These factors could help explain why 21.6% of respondents said they did not experience any symptoms of burnout. In the 2018 report, only 10% - 15% reported having no burnout symptoms. While this is promising, it still means that 78.4% of medical professionals reported experiencing one or more symptoms of burnout this year. Exhaustion was the most common symptom with 41.3% reporting frequent or overwhelming exhaustion symptoms.

There were some major shifts in community and practice preferences reported this year. Major metro areas decreased in popularity among residents and fellows for the first time ever with a decline of 17.7%. However, with preferences for suburban communities increasing by 5.9% and midsized cities increasing by 8.3%, physicians and advanced practice clinicians still prefer these communities over small cities and rural communities. The most significant shift in practice type preference was a decline by residents and fellows from academic roles which were down 11.9%, to hospital employment which increased 6.9%.

Click here to download the 2019 Physician Practice Preference & Relocation Survey!

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