Physician Shortage May Provoke Greater Use of Advanced Practitioners

Physician shortages will present challenges for medical groups in 2012, according to data from Cejka Search and American Medical Group Association's 2011 Physician Retention Survey.

The turnover rate for both nurse practitioners and physician assistants reported by the survey is 12.6 percent, which nearly doubles the combined, adjusted physician turnover rate of 6.0 percent. The combination of a projected physician shortage and high turnover reported for both nurse practitioners and physician assistants gives medical groups an incentive to use advanced practitioners to fill in the gaps in patient care.

According to the report, more than two-thirds of respondents from the survey reported that the involvement of advanced practitioners in their groups has grown "somewhat" or "significantly" in the past five years. The response increases to 75 percent when looking ahead to the next five years.

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