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29 June 2010Why, How and Where Physicians Seek and Select New Practice Opportunities
As part of our annual Physician Compensation and Relocation Survey, we ask physicians what type of practice situations attract them the most, as well as what their key decision-making factors and motivators are when making a career change to a new practice.
This year, for the 2010 survey, results were fairly consistent with past years, plus a few emerging trends:
Type of Practice: While employment is gaining popularity, single-specialty group practices remain the most interesting to physicians today, according to our responses. About 34% of all respondents in practice prefer single-specialty groups. That number is even higher for subspecialists – about 43% of medicine subspecialists (gastroenterology, cardiology, etc.) prefer single-specialty group practices.
Hospital employed was the second most popular answer with about 20% of in-practice respondents selecting hospital employment as their preference. However, if considering the total all of the in-practice respondents who prefer some type of private practice (single-, multi-specialty, or solo), the numbers look even more dramatic. Of all practicing physicians who responded, 59% prefer some type of private practice over employed positions.
Why Make a Change? Doctors have to be pretty motivated to close down one practice to take a chance on another one. Moving a family and starting over are major changes in one’s life. What is the motivator that often moves physicians to take action and begin looking? Often, the motivating factor is money – according to our respondents, about 28% of all practicing physicians decide to make a practice change for more money.
How Doctors Decide: While they may initiate their search due to financial reasons, money is not the only factor physicians consider when ultimately deciding upon a new practice. Money still ranks high on the priority list at 30%, but “quality of practice” was a close second amongst all practicing doctors, with about 27% of physicians indicating practice quality as their greatest factor in deciding which new practice to choose.
Physicians in training are another story – they listed geographic location as their number one factor in a new practice 34% of the time, followed by quality of practice at 32%. Finances were a distant third place response at 18% among doctors in training. This is not surprising, since they haven’t yet experienced the full extent of financial burdens and responsibilities.
Where to Work: The southeastern region was a huge favorite among practicing physicians, with about 19% of physicians selecting that area as their top pick of where to live. The northeast was next in popularity, with about 14% of physicians surveyed opting for that region. The mid-Atlantic region was a close third with about 12.5% of practicing physicians selecting that area.
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April 5th, 2012 at 10:05 pm
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