Physician retention plans help reduce costs and optimize revenues.

Recruiting primary care physicians can cost a large practice

millions of dollars in recruitment expenses and lost revenue. And

competition among practices to attract physicians can cause a position to

remain unfilled for a year or longer. Thus, the ability to retain

Successful implementation of a physician retention plan can help reduce

turnover, improve morale among the physicians, and foster a perception of a

practice as a health services provider of choice.

Penn State Geisinger Health System, Danville, Pennsylvania, developed a

physician retention plan for its multispecialty group practice of nearly

1,000 physicians to reduce its costs associated with physician recruitment.

The plan is organized into four phases of physician employment: recruitment,

preemployment, employment, and postemployment.

Physician turnover can be costly for all medical practices, particularly

large ones. Physician retention, therefore, is an important cost-avoidance

strategy and an important way to maintain the continuity of healthcare

services. Practices should work to be perceived by physicians as the health

services employer of choice and continually strive for improvement. These

goals are facilitated by having a physician retention plan in place before

recruitment begins.

Penn State Geisinger Health System, Danville, Pennsylvania, conducted

research for the development of such a physician retention plan to reduce

its physician attrition rate. Penn State Geisinger is an integrated delivery

system comprising four hospitals, a not-for-profit, multispecialty group

practice of nearly 1,000 physicians, and the nation's largest rural HMO in

terms of covered lives. Penn State Geisinger employs more than 200

nonphysician providers, provides care to a patient population of 4.4 million

through 80 practice sites, and offers more than 30 residency and fellowship

programs.

Penn State Geisinger estimated that replacing one primary care physician can

result in $20,000 to $26,000 in recruitment costs, loss of $300,000 to