Health of the Physician Workforce: Unique Needs of an Aging Workforce

TRACK: Management and Administration in OEM

William George Buchta, MD, MPH, MS, FACOEM, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN
Philip T. Hagen, MD, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN
Robin G. Molella, MD, MPH, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN
Tate D. Shanafelt, MD, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN

Approximately 40 percent of practicing physicians are over age 55 and almost 20 percent are over age 65. Yet demands for medical services are increasing faster than the work force is growing. The medical workplace is changing due to technology and the ongoing re-design of health care delivery. This session will profile the physician workforce, describe our research on physician’s perception of their own health needs and those of their colleagues. The session will highlight some of the unique occupational characteristics of the physician’s work force, and physicians as patients. The session will also present a physician care model that can manage preventive needs, acute health needs, and complex illness in the physician, while simultaneously addressing return to work, accommodation, and impairment.