Will a “silent exodus” from medicine worsen doctor shortage?

Many physicians, nervous about the impact of health system reform and dispirited by trends in medicine, are exploring career options that involve treating fewer patients.

By Kevin B. O'Reilly, amednews staff. Posted Oct. 8, 2012.

Frustrated by mounting regulation, declining pay, loss of autonomy and uncertainty about the effect of health system reform, doctors are cutting back the number of hours they work and how many patients they see.

Between 2008 and 2012, the average number of hours physicians worked fell by 5.9%, from 57 hours a week to 53, and doctors saw 16.6% fewer patients, according to a survey of nearly 14,000 doctors released in September. If the trend continues through 2016, it would equate to the loss of 44,250 full-time physicians, said the report, conducted by the doctor-recruiting firm Merritt Hawkins & Associates for the Physicians Foundation. The foundation was started in 2003 with more than $30 million from class-action settlements that 22 state and county medical societies made with health plans.

“This is a silent exodus,” said Mark Smith, president of Merritt Hawkins. “Physicians are feeling extremely overtaxed, overrun and overburdened.”

for complete AMA article:
http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2012/10/08/prl11008.htm