Study: More than 15 percent of physicians move annually
The three-year average of physicians who moved to a new location or practice, retired, or passed away is 15.2 percent, according to an update of SK&A’s “Physicians on the Move” report, which reveals the rate of change of office-based physicians by practice specialty.
The report, released by SK&A, a provider of healthcare information solutions and research, shows that such changes create obstacles in maintaining quality physician-targeting databases and lists necessary to execute high-performing sales, marketing and market research initiatives.
Data suggest that the move rate of physicians has declined steadily in the past three years, indicating recent stability among the specialties surveyed. The rate has gone from 18.2 percent in the 2008 reporting period to 15 percent in 2009 to 12.4 percent in the 2010 period.
Allergists/immunologists, pulmonary critical care and internal medicine/pediatrics were the top three practice areas for the most stable physicians, with annual change rates of 7, 7.1 and 7.9 percent, for each of the years. Hepatologists, hematologists and osteopathic physicians were among the most volatile doctors, with change rates of 19.9, 19.4 and 19.2 percent.
“At a time when the models for physician targeting, segmentation and engagement are rapidly evolving, the need to monitor the actual movement of healthcare practitioners to maintain database integrity has never been more important,” said Dave Escalante, SK&A vice president of Data and Information Solutions.
For example, left unmanaged for a two-year period, a physician contact or profiling database would degrade by more than 30 percent, leading to wasted time, money and resources, according to Escalante.
The study lists 86 physician specialties alphabetically with their annualized change rates for 2008, 2009 and 2010. Also, 2010 medical office personnel move rates for 16 job titles are listed, with chief executive officers having the most stable move rate of 8.9 percent and receptionists/secretaries having the highest move rate of 22.8 percent.
