Several years ago, any physician seeking retirement from Baptist Health Medical Group would have 90 to 120 days to give notice of termination. In most cases, this just isn’t enough time to recruit another physician, observed Isaac J. Myers II, MD, president of the Baptist Health Medical Group, which is part of Baptist Health, a Louisville-based health system delivering care in Kentucky, southern Indiana and neighboring states.
The situation called for a reassessment of the early notice of retirement program. If there was more advanced notice for doctors thinking about retiring or planning to retire, “it would give us time not only to recruit, but also to work through the operational challenges and the transition of the patients,” said Dr. Myers, who is also the chief health integration officer for Baptist Health.
Baptist Health Medical Group is part of the AMA Health System Member Program, which provides enterprise solutions to equip leadership, physicians and care teams with resources to help drive the future of medicine.
Fewer physicians are going into medicine and expectations of young physicians have changed. There’s also a bigger focus on quality of life and working part time.
The aim is to meet those needs, find out what makes those physicians happy, noted Dr. Myers. Baptist Health has accomplished this through several venues, from easing administrative work to providing mentorship and coaching programs and offering support to young doctors through its advance notice of retirement program.
This program is unique in that retiring physicians over a year’s time or longer mentor new physicians onboarding with Baptist Health Medical Group. In turn, retiring doctors feel valued in their mentorship roles as they transition their practice to a new doctor, ensuring that their patients are well taken care of.
Since its inception in 2022, 31 physicians have collectively enrolled in the program and 16 have completed the program and retired, said Dr. Myers.
Longer retirement eases transition
To participate, a physician must give at least a 12-month notice, with a bonus promised for each additional year of notice given.
This way, “at least we know from an operations standpoint that the doctor's going to leave. We can assess the practice and what the needs are,” said Dr. Myers. For example, if one physician leaves, is it necessary to recruit another doctor?
“Once we realize we need to replace that physician, we start the process of recruiting the next physician for that practice,” he said. This involves many meetings and planning and assessment of the practice.
Retiring physicians can help with the planning, explaining what’s worked well and what hasn’t, as the new doctor transitions to the health system and the medical group. There are also opportunities to mentor more than one physician or mentor nonphysician providers who are supporting the practice or brought in to join the practice.
Overall, the program has benefitted Baptist Health in many ways.
From a recruitment perspective, it’s comforting for new doctors to have a seasoned, retiring physician as a mentor who can help them transition to their new practice. They’re not just walking cold into an empty practice where a part time contractor is keeping things going, he explained.
“It helps us in the planning phase so we don't fall short of resources to take care of patients or have the burden of having to get a locum tenens to come in and take over practice for a short period of time,” Dr. Myers added. “It’s smooth sailing … you're moving through the process versus having this big bump in the road or potentially losing patients because the doctor has left.”
Five-year plan helps find new hires
Baptist Health Medical Group has also leveraged its five-year strategic plan, which helps identify areas of need for physicians to grow its market as a health system and assist with recruitment.
The plan evolves over time as goals change within the medical group, noted Dr. Myers. Recruitment teams look over this strategic plan to seek out new hires, as well as current physicians who receive communication from the medical group about the plan. Any employee who finds and recruits a new hire receives a bonus through the medical group’s incentives program.
Once the doctors are recruited, the operation team assigns mentors to the new hires as part of the onboarding process to make sure everything is ready “and the physicians get their questions answered,” said Dr. Myers. “That’s how the new physicians get acclimated into the system.”
But the process doesn’t stop there. Baptist Health Medical Group follows up and checks in with its new recruits.
“We reassess in six months how they're doing, what's working, what's not,” he said. “We stay very closely in touch with our physicians and the operation team to make sure that we're meeting the needs of the physicians.”
Currently, a big recruitment push is for primary care physicians because there is a “big shortage and that's a high priority for us,” Dr. Myers said.
Well-being helps with recruitment
Receiving recognition from the AMA’s Joy in Medicine® Health System Recognition Program has also helped with recruitment. This is seen through Baptist Health’s well-being coordinators who work with physicians to see what their work-life balance needs are. Baptist Health earned bronze-level recognition from the program.
“As we go through the recruitment process, we talk to the physicians about all the things we're doing to help support them as they come into the practice in their transition,” said Dr. Myers, noting new recruits can talk to physicians who have benefitted from the medical group’s well-being programs.
“We want to make sure that they're happy, that they can acclimate to the culture and do well, and to make it as stress-free as possible in the transition of joining the health system,” he said.
Have physician leaders across markets
To further support physician leaders, Baptist Health has worked to provide executive coaching to help them feel more comfortable in their current roles. The training has helped retain physicians and even entire practices through assessments to gauge leadership styles and group coaching sessions.
Each of Baptist Health’s markets has a physician leader, a primary care physician and a specialist in the market. As the president of a medical group, Dr. Myers realized he couldn’t meet with every doctor for every issue that comes up.
Having leaders in specific markets to readily address any concerns or needs is very important “because many times the physician wants to talk with another physician, not the operations folks,” he said. “So that's been a very big positive, having the physician leaders across the markets.”
Maintain open communication
Baptist Health Medical Group also prioritizes communication. Newsletters, face-to-face meetings and group meetings have all helped with retention.
“We approach our work with transparency by keeping physicians informed on what's going on financially, what are the headwinds?” said Dr. Myers. A recent meeting addressed those headwinds and what’s expected over the next few years. The goal is to educate doctors so they can stay informed and focus on their practice.
