9 fixes for the practice problems driving physicians out the door

Eighty-eight percent of employed physicians watched a piece of medical equipment sit broken or wait on a repair in the past year. Nearly as many, 79 percent, walked into a visit without the test results or chart notes they needed. Both are operations failures, and both land on the practice administrator's desk.

The numbers come from the 2026 Employed Physician Survey, which Healthsperien's Center for Health Research, Policy & Strategy fielded among 1,003 employed physicians for the Physicians Advocacy Institute. Most of the coverage has focused on the ownership fight the data feeds: 82 percent of U.S. physicians now work for a hospital or corporate owner, and 63 percent say their employer's policies block out-of-network referrals. Underneath that argument sits a quieter, more useful list of everyday breakdowns.

Physicians are already responding to them. Forty-four percent are looking for a new job or considering one, 47 percent would contemplate joining a trade union and one in seven plans to leave clinical practice before retiring. Recruiting a replacement costs far more than repairing the workflow that pushed someone out. Here are nine places to start.