Physicians were not positive in their outlook on the U.S. physician shortage in Medscape’s “Feeling the Impact of the Physician Shortage: Medscape Report 2025,” released Aug. 22.
The survey collected responses from 1,001 physicians from March 20 to April 24, 2024.
Here are 10 new statistics from the report:
1. Most physicians said that their workplace was hiring at least part-time, with only 24% of respondents saying their workplace was not hiring at all.
2. The Northern region had the highest percentage of workplaces looking to hire physicians, at 71%.
3. Of workplaces that were hiring, 67% were hiring three or fewer physicians at one time for both full- and part-time work.
4. The majority of respondents said that their workplaces were hiring physicians at multiple locations.
5. The majority of physicians — 63% — said that they have seen a shortage of qualified applicants for positions in their local market, compared to 23% who said they did not see a shortage and 13% who were unsure.
6. Physicians were negative in their outlook on the physician shortage, with 58% of respondents saying that they were unconfident or very unconfident about improving the shortage. Another 29% said they were neither confident nor unconfident, with another 10% and 2% responding confident and very confident, respectively.
7. About 4 in 10 respondents said unfilled physician roles at their organizations impacted their work life. When it came to their patient count, schedule and total work hours, physicians more often reported increased impacts than little to no increase.
8. Respondents were somewhat divided when asked whether the number of qualified applicants for a given position had changed in the last three years. For physicians, 37% of respondents said the number of qualified applicants stayed the same, while 22% said it had increased and 30% said it decreased.
9. Medscape asked respondents about what tactics their organizations were employing to attract more qualified applicants. Here’s a breakdown of the various responses:
- Networking through own physicians and medical staff: 56%
- Networking at conferences and association meetings (in-person and virtual): 32%
- Improving compensation: 32%
- Using social media: 21%
- Improving benefits: 20%
- Creating new marketing pitches 12%
- Other: 3%
- None of these: 18%
10. Despite negative views on the future of the shortage, 72% of respondents said that their employer was not willing to turn away a patient due to a shortage of physicians.
