October 16, 2023
ALEX KACIK
More than 145,000 healthcare practitioners left the industry from 2021 through 2022, threatening access and quality, according to a report published Monday.
Physicians accounted for roughly half of the healthcare workers who retired or changed professions over the two-year span, according to an analysis of all-payer claims data from Definitive Healthcare, a healthcare commercial intelligence company. More than 71,000 physicians left the workforce from 2021 to 2022.
Related: Health systems turning to ‘gig nurses’ to ease staffing issues
Here are five takeaways from the Definitive Healthcare study:
1. Primary care, mental health docs led exodus
Internal medicine and family practice physicians accounted for more than 16,000 of the 71,309 doctors who left the field by 2022. Eleven thousand clinical psychologists and psychiatrists retired or switched professions.
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