Physician burnout seems like a persistent reality for medical group practices — no longer a pandemic-era spike but a baseline condition that continues to push experienced physicians out of the workforce earlier than planned. Practice leaders should ask themselves: Is my organization doing enough to keep their work environment one where physicians want to stay.

Unexpected physician departures lead to the remaining clinicians absorbing heavier patient panels, recruitment cycles stretching months or longer, and the practice losing institutional knowledge that cannot be quickly replaced. In smaller and independent groups, even a single early departure can reshape scheduling, revenue and care access for years.

What you told us

Our April 28, 2026, MGMA Stat poll found that one in three (33%) medical groups reported a physician retiring or leaving in the past year due to burnout, while 61% did not and about 6% were unsure. The poll had 344 applicable responses. This is a slight increase from a September 2024 MGMA poll that found 27% of medical groups reported a physician leaving or retiring early due to burnout.

This week’s poll not only signals a higher rate of unplanned physician exits but also an increase in the share of medical groups where leaders believe things are getting worse: Almost half (49%) of all respondents said they felt physician burnout was getting worse in their organizations, while 38% said it was about the same as the year before, and only 13% reported improvement. In the earlier 2024 poll, only 41% said burnout was worsening, 45% said it was about the same, and 14% reported improvement.

Practice leaders who didn’t experience an unplanned departure this past year should be cautious, though: These groups had only a small gap between those who thought burnout was getting worse (39%) and those who said it was about the same (42%), while only 19% signaled improvement. Those figures could signal that they may face the same fate of their counterparts who said goodbye to a physician abruptly this past year.

What’s driving burnout: Practice leaders’ responses

Across all respondents, the clearest theme was administrative burden. Many medical groups said they are trying to make physicians’ work lives better through AI-assisted documentation, EHR improvements, lower patient volumes or other workflow changes. But those gains are often being offset by growing pressure from payers, prior authorization and denials, documentation and compliance requirements, staffing shortages, and weaker reimbursement.

Even when practice leaders said burnout is improving, they often described that progress as fragile. Some linked improvement to fewer patients on the schedule, temporary relief after an EHR transition, or small workflow fixes — not broad relief from the underlying causes of burnout. Several also pointed to culture and leadership issues, including poor communication, limited physician input, office politics, and corporate or structural changes that add stress.

Among the 33% who reported an early retirement or unexpected physician departure, many described the same mix of pressures: insurance interference, heavier administrative work, staffing shortages, difficulty recruiting and retaining clinicians, declining reimbursement, and disruptive EHR or care model changes..

Some tied burnout directly to leadership and governance problems, with comments such as “we don’t listen to our doctors,” “office politics,” and “corporate reductions in resources.” Those responses suggest that internal practice dynamics can speed up physician exits when external pressures are already high. When respondents did describe improvement, it was usually tied to specific fixes — AI documentation support, steadier EHR workflows or reduced visit volumes — and often came with a dark humor that showed how limited the relief feels.

Groups that did not report early retirements or unexpected departures were more likely to point to proactive steps: AI charting or dictation, workflow improvements, staffing support, reduced hours, better scheduling, and stronger physician involvement in decisions.

But these groups still reported pressure from payer rules, insurance requirements, patient behavior, and documentation demands. In other words, not losing physicians right now does not necessarily mean burnout is low. For many practices, stability may depend on whether they can keep reducing the daily administrative load before physicians decide they have had enough.

Today’s picture: Better than the pandemic peak, but far from resolved

A landmark study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings in April 2025 — co-authored by researchers from the AMA, Mayo Clinic, University of Colorado School of Medicine and Stanford Medicine — found that 45.2% of physicians reported at least one symptom of burnout in 2023, down sharply from a record 62.8% in 2021 but still elevated relative to the general U.S. workforce. More recent AMA survey data from 2024 showed the rate continuing to dip, falling below 45% for the first time since before the pandemic.

But these improvements come with important caveats for practice leaders. The same Mayo Clinic Proceedings study found that physicians remained roughly twice as likely to experience burnout as other U.S. workers after adjusting for hours, demographics and education. And only about 65% of physicians in 2023 said they would choose the profession again — better than the pandemic low of 57% in 2021, but still below the 70% recorded in 2011.

For medical groups, national trend lines only tell part of the story. What matters most is what burnout looks like inside your practice: whether physicians are leaving, reducing hours, disengaging from leadership, or quietly counting the months to retirement.

An aging workforce meets accumulated strain

According to AAMC data, physicians aged 65 and older now represent about 20% of the active clinical workforce, with another 22% between the ages of 55 and 64. More than four in 10 practicing physicians are within a decade of traditional retirement age — and burnout is accelerating the timeline for many of them.

MGMA polling has tracked this pattern of departures. In 2022, 40% of medical groups reported a physician retiring early or leaving due to burnout. That figure eased to 29% in 2023 and 27% in 2024, suggesting a modest stabilization — but not a resolution. Practice leaders responding to the 2024 poll described physicians who were worn down by flat reimbursement amid rising costs, heavier patient panels created by prior departures, documentation burdens and the cumulative weight of years of operational stress.

As Tony Stajduhar of Jackson Physician Search told MGMA, the aging physician workforce represents a potential cliff that many organizations are still not preparing for. Physicians nearing retirement are increasingly willing to transition out of full-time practice, and the traditional assumption that they will simply keep working no longer holds. If you are managing a tight roster, you need a more proactive approach to workforce planning.

What stops physicians from staying — and what keeps them practicing

Joint research from Jackson Physician Search and LocumTenens.com found that 90% of physicians and APPs first saw medicine as a calling, with helping others as their top reason for entering the field. But more than half said that sense of calling has weakened over time, largely because of administrative work, regulatory pressure and less control over how they practice.

The generational differences are notable: Baby Boomer physicians were most likely to still describe medicine as a calling and to say they find joy in their work, while Millennials were less likely to say the same. When clinicians were asked what helps them get through difficult periods, they most often pointed to patient relationships, family time and self-care — not formal wellness programs.

For practice leaders, the takeaway is straightforward: retention is not only about wellness programs. It also depends on day-to-day operational changes that protect what physicians value most — time with patients, reasonable control over their work and workloads they can sustain. When those pieces break down, burnout rises and physicians become more likely to leave.

Encouraging signs from practices that are getting it right

An April 2025 MGMA poll found that about one in four practice leaders had added to or updated burnout-reduction efforts in the prior year. The most common steps included AI-powered documentation tools, more flexible schedules, expanded APP roles to spread clinical work more evenly, and formal physician wellness committees.

Some organizations are taking a more targeted approach. Medical groups are using hospitalist and part-time roles as a planned path toward retirement for physicians who might otherwise leave completely. This helps the practice keep experienced clinicians, even at reduced hours. Others are investing in physician leadership development so doctors have a stronger voice in operational decisions — an approach increasingly tied to lower burnout and better retention.

Shared leadership models can also help. These include dyads that pair a physician leader with an administrator, or triads that also include a nursing or operations leader. The goal is simple: bring clinical and business perspectives into the same decision-making process. As one CommonSpirit Health leader described at the 2025 MGMA Summit, physician leadership education changed the dynamic. Once physicians better understood the operational reasons behind decisions, they moved from passive support to more active ownership of the organization’s goals.

The AMA’s Joy in Medicine Health System Recognition Program, which has recognized more than 150 hospitals and health systems since 2019, points to similar practices among organizations making measurable progress. Common steps include measuring burnout through regular assessments, holding senior leaders accountable for well-being outcomes, and fixing processes that add low-value administrative work.

The work ahead

It is easy to look at the headline numbers as a simple measure of whether practices are making progress on burnout. But the bigger message is that practices have less room to wait. With more than 40% of physicians nearing retirement age, losing even a small number to preventable burnout can have a major impact — especially when replacements can take months to find and years to fully settle into the practice.

Most practices now know burnout cannot be treated only as a wellness issue or solved with resilience training. It requires changes to the way work gets done: reducing documentation burden, redesigning schedules, expanding team-based care, giving physicians a real voice in decisions, and creating part-time or phased-retirement options that keep experienced clinicians connected to the practice.

As Steve Brewer wrote for MGMA in 2025, there is also a risk of becoming “burned out on burnout.” Focusing too much on burnout as a label can reinforce frustration instead of leading to useful action. Brewer argued for a stronger approach: focus on what is working and rebuild the conditions that help physicians reconnect with the purpose that brought them to medicine.

That is the real leadership challenge. Practice leaders must do more than measure and acknowledge burnout. They need to redesign daily work so experienced physicians can keep providing meaningful care under conditions that are sustainable for them and for the organization.

Join the conversation

• MGMA Stat polls are conducted weekly to give medical practice leaders a pulse on the latest trends in healthcare management. To participate, sign up for MGMA Stat at mgma.com/mgma-stat.
• Have a success story in dealing with physician burnout or retention? Let us know in the MGMA Member Community or email us at connection@mgma.com.