Sixty-two percent of emergency medicine physicians reported feeling burned out, according to the AMA’s Organizational Biopsy report, based on responses from more than 13,000 providers across 30 states.
As of 2022, there were 1,044,734 physicians in the United States, according to a census report released by the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB). Based on an estimated U.S. population of 333 million people, that means there are approximately 313 licensed physicians per 100,000 people.
Physicians say the burden of paperwork/quality metrics is the top issue they face, according to Medical Economics’ 94th Physician Report. This was the top issue physicians reported in 2020 as well.
To face the projected physician shortage, legislation introduced in the House and Senate aims to raise the number of Medicare-supported graduate medical education positions by 14,000.
For physicians, the risk of being sued by a patient is low in the short term but increases the longer they practice, according to data from the AMA’s Physician Practice Benchmark Surveys.