April 18, 2013 | 5 min read
Physician Check Up: What Your Physicians May be Thinking about the Future of Healthcare

Tandym Group

As the Affordable Care Act gains traction, journalists, experts, and politicians are coming out of the woodwork to weigh in on its merits, drawbacks, and what it will mean for the future of healthcare. However, no one group has its fingers on the pulse of the medical profession quite like physicians themselves. At Execu|Search, we believe that the choices professionals make based on their perceptions about their fields greatly impact those fields themselves. If medical professionals are generally satisfied, word gets out—employers are able to recruit and retain employees with greater ease. If they are generally unsatisfied or feel insecure, employers may need to rethink the benefits and security they offer their employees. “As a firm, it’s very important that we stay ahead of the curve when it comes to understanding industry and hiring trends,” explains Barbara Giallombardo, Managing Director of Physician Recruitment. “Knowing the 3-5 year picture is just as important as knowing what’s going on today because our awareness of market trends helps our recruiters provide better career advice when working with an active job seeker as well as guide our clients when opening a search, and ultimately when making the final hiring decision.”

That’s why we’ve compiled the highlights from Deloitte’s 2013 Physician’s survey, in which 613 physicians expressed their concerns and predictions about the changing landscape of their profession. These perceptions are sure to have tangible effects on the healthcare industry in the coming years.

  • Most physicians in the survey expressed concern for the future of their profession, and six out of ten physicians believe the future of medicine may be in jeopardy. However, seven out of ten physicians are generally satisfied practicing medicine, suggesting that the perceived risks posed to the profession come from outside influences rather than general dissatisfaction.
  • Eight in ten physicians agree that the wave of the future in medicine over the next decade involves interdisciplinary teams and care coordinators.
  • Physicians surveyed identified a tradeoff as far as working in a large organization versus an individual practice. Larger work settings offer better conditions for contracting with third-party payers such as insurance companies (89 percent of all physicians surveyed feel this way), whereas clinical autonomy was a valued feature of, and more likely to be a feature of, solo practices (81 percent of all physicians agreed).
  • Half of physicians surveyed think that physician incomes will fall dramatically in the coming years, likely because of healthcare reform.
  • Physicians believe they are more likely to compete with midlevel professionals in primary care in the coming years. Nearly eight in ten believe that mid-level professionals will play a bigger role in direct primary care delivery and that insurers will aggressively negotiate to preserve margins.
  • Merging with each other and with larger healthcare facilities for the sake of financial security and negotiating power has occurred for about three in ten physicians surveyed. About two-thirds of all physicians believe that physicians and hospitals will become more integrated in the next one to three years.
  • More and more physicians are aware of a changing tide in healthcare that will require them to work in different settings and as part of larger organizations that use cutting edge technologies for patient care.
  • Two-thirds of physicians say they use EHRs that meet meaningful use stage one requirements. The majority of physicians report numerous benefits to using an EHR system. This means that health care practices will need staff to use new EHR systems as they develop.

More Information:

Deloitte 2013 Survey of U.S. Physicians: http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-UnitedStates/Local%20Assets/Documents/us_chs_2013SurveyofUSPhysicians_031813.pdf

 

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