MD Employment Preference Limiting Income

New medical school graduates aren’t quite feeling the entrepreneurial spirit. More than half of new physicians prefer to be employed either by a hospital or an academic center, according to a new survey.

The Medicus Firm’s annual survey, 2013 Physician Practice Preference and Relocation Survey, revealed that new physicians, who were still in training at the time of the survey, want to be employed — 28.1% prefer to be at a hospital and 25.9% at an academic center.

Overall, physicians expressed a preference to work in the eastern half of the country, with the Southeast (20.3%) slightly more preferable than the Northeast (17.5%). Plus, just 6% are open to working in a town of less than 25,000 residents. Nearly 60% want to work in metropolitan or suburban locations.

The top concern among physicians, more so than work-life balance, burnout or the Affordable Care Act, is compensation/reimbursements, according to 53% of physician respondents. However, physicians feel the main factors that limit their incomes is hospital employment and time spent learning electronic medical record systems.

In the 2013 survey many physicians reported flat or declining income, according to Medicus. Hospitalists, emergency medicine physicians, ob/gyns and general surgeons all experienced some income growth, though.

The good news is that physicians must be feeling good about the job environment. Just 1.4% of the 2,500 respondents said physician recruiting was a concern and 8.3% indicated a top concern was finding a new practice opportunity.

“While hospital employers can’t change their location, the weather, or the town population or amenities, they can offer other creative perks and solutions tailored to the physician’s lifestyle, like flexible schedules, and a pleasant work environment where physicians are included in administrative decisions and allowed some of the managerial influence they had when they owned private practices,” said Jim Stone, president of The Medicus Firm.