117,000 Doctors Left Their Jobs in 2021 

There are about 940,000 real doctors in the US and 12% of them quit last year. That’s a lot. Of course, every administrator or ivory tower pontificator will blame COVID. Why? It’s an easy excuse. Instead of looking at how the people who employed these doctors dealt with the situation they just brush it off as an anomaly. Click here to go to this part of the website and scroll down to see how CV19 was handled by administrators.

The worrisome part is this statement from the article describing this turnover:

“There is the current worry of being able to backfill as physicians retire or move out of the workforce,” Bellemare said. “The ability for people to get into the healthcare profession, how do we make that easier?”

Backfill physicians by making it easier for “people” to get into the healthcare profession? That is code for hiring more NON-doctors. We know that because they aren’t opening up any more residencies or medical schools. This is not the answer to our broken healthcare system. Education and training matter. There is a role for nondoctors but it is not to lead. 

I do like this quote:

“If you’re one of the best pulmonologists there is, but 20% of your time is spent doing administrative tasks, then you’re going to get burnt out,” he said. “The thing that hospitals, health systems, physician groups, surgery centers, and any type of facility management should be looking at is, ‘How do you hold tight to your people and make them happy?’” 

Holding tight to your doctors = PHYSICIAN RETENTION. I wrote a whole book on this, and I have worked with multiple organizations to discuss this. Happy doctors stay. Happy doctors recruit other doctors. Happy doctors make patients happy. End of story.