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 physicians is critical to the financial well-being of a practice. 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.