Article ; Online: Changes in Physician Work Hours and Implications for Workforce Capacity and Work-Life Balance, 2001-2021.
2023 Volume 183, Issue 2, Page(s) 106–114
Abstract: Importance: Physician work hours are an underexplored facet of the physician workforce that can inform policy for the rapidly changing health care labor market.: Objective: To examine trends in individual physician work hours and their contribution ... ...
| Abstract | Importance: Physician work hours are an underexplored facet of the physician workforce that can inform policy for the rapidly changing health care labor market. Objective: To examine trends in individual physician work hours and their contribution to clinical workforce changes over a 20-year period. Design, setting, and participants: This cross-sectional study focused on active US physicians between January 2001 and December 2021 who were included in the Current Population Survey. Outcomes for physicians, advanced practice professionals (APPs), and nonphysician holders of doctoral degrees were compared, and generalized linear models were used to estimate differences in time trends for weekly work hours across subgroups. Main outcomes and measures: Physician and APP workforce size, defined as the number of active clinicians, 3-year moving averages of weekly work hours by individual physicians, and weekly hours contributed by the physician and APP workforce per 100 000 US residents. Results: A total of 87 297 monthly surveys of physicians from 17 599 unique households were included in the analysis. The number of active physicians grew 32.9% from 2001 to 2021, peaking in 2019 at 989 684, then falling 6.7% to 923 419 by 2021, with disproportionate loss of physicians in rural areas. Average weekly work hours for individual physicians declined by 7.6% (95% CI, -9.1% to -6.1%), from 52.6 to 48.6 hours per week from 2001 to 2021. The downward trend was driven by decreasing hours among male physicians, particularly fathers (11.9% decline in work hours), rural physicians (-9.7%), and physicians aged 45 to 54 years (-9.8%). Physician mothers were the only examined subgroup to experience a statistically significant increase in work hours (3.0%). Total weekly hours contributed by the physician workforce per 10 000 US residents increased by 7.0%, from 13 006 hours in 2001 to 2003 to 13 920 hours in 2019 to 2021, compared with 16.6% growth in the US population over that time period. Weekly hours contributed by the APP workforce per 100 000 US residents grew 71.2% from 2010 through 2012 to 2019 through 2021. Conclusions and relevance: This cross-sectional study showed that physician work hours consistently declined in the past 20 years, such that physician workforce hours per capita lagged behind US population growth. This trend was offset by rapid growth in hours contributed by the APP workforce. The gap in physician work hours between men and women narrowed considerably, with diverging potential implications for gender equity. Increasing physician retirement combined with a drop in active physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic may further slow growth in physician workforce hours per capita in the US. |
|---|---|
| MeSH term(s) | Humans ; Male ; Female ; United States ; Work-Life Balance ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Pandemics ; COVID-19 ; Physicians ; Workforce ; Surveys and Questionnaires |
| Language | English |
| Publishing date | 2023-01-30 |
| Publishing country | United States |
| Document type | Journal Article ; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't |
| ZDB-ID | 2699338-7 |
| ISSN | 2168-6114 ; 2168-6106 |
| ISSN (online) | 2168-6114 |
| ISSN | 2168-6106 |
| DOI | 10.1001/jamainternmed.2022.5792 |
| Database | MEDical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System OnLINE |
More links
Kategorien
In stock of ZB MED Cologne/Königswinter
| Ua VI Zs.119: Show issues | Location: Je nach Verfügbarkeit (siehe Angabe bei Bestand) bis Jg. 2021: Bestellungen von Artikeln über das Online-Bestellformular ab Jg. 2022: Lesesaal (EG) |
Order via subito
This service is chargeable due to the Delivery terms set by subito. Orders including an article and supplementary material will be classified as separate orders. In these cases, fees will be demanded for each order.