The physician shortage continues to challenge health systems nationwide — but some leaders are finding new ways to adapt. During a featured session at Becker’s 13th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable, two senior executives shared strategies to stabilize and future-proof clinical teams.
Moderated by Shannon Peterson, Senior Vice President at Medicus Healthcare Solutions, the discussion included insights from Matt Broom, MD, Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at BJC Medical Group (St. Louis), and Michael Loftus, MD, System Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs at RWJBarnabas Health (West Orange, N.J.) and Senior Vice President and Chief Medical and Quality Officer at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center (Livingston, N.J.).
Here are four key takeaways from their discussion.
1. Rethinking staffing models is no longer optional.
The panelists agreed that traditional staffing approaches no longer fit the current workforce landscape, where aging clinicians are retiring and younger physicians are seeking better work-life balance.
“For any cardiologist or gastroenterologist that’s retiring, I probably need two of our new graduates to replace them,” Dr. Broom said, citing shifting expectations among newer clinicians. “We have to diversify, not only the strategies that we use but how we actually assess and integrate in different mechanisms, otherwise we’ll be caught flat-footed.”
Dr. Loftus emphasized that staffing must be approached at the system level.
“There will always be a group that is more difficult to recruit than you’d like,” he said. “Approaching that as a system has been really helpful for us, and thinking further and further upstream.” He encouraged organizations to take an honest look at their future workforce needs — particularly those likely to emerge in the next three to five years — and build pipelines proactively.
2. The service line model enables resilience and agility.
Both BJC Medical Group and RWJBarnabas Health have invested in service line structures that allow for greater flexibility and consistency across facilities. Dr. Loftus said the model proved essential when integrating a struggling private radiology group into RWJBarnabas Health.
“The service line model saved us,” Dr. Loftus said. “The ability for our health system to say, okay, these doctors are going to cover your hospital today, and we’re going to pick up the slack elsewhere, that was enormous.”
He noted that external partnerships also played a role in maintaining continuity. RWJBarnabas Health partnered with the Medicus Transition Program for interim healthcare staffing, which provided the support needed to maintain continuity during the transition.
“We worked with Medicus to provide bridge locums coverage, which was essential in the short run and helped provide that safety valve to help the existing radiologists work through a substantial clinical backlog,” he said. “We were able to flip that switch, and the health system resources literally poured in to help work through it.”
Dr. Broom noted similar benefits. “The service line model has been transformational, just on sharing across markets,” he said.
3. Engagement and retention require transparency and active listening.
Both executives highlighted the importance of engaging clinicians proactively and fostering an open feedback culture.
Understanding the current workforce — who’s in place, who’s thriving and who may be at risk — is essential, Dr. Broom said. “We don’t want someone to tell us they’re going to leave unless we already knew,” he said.
Dr. Loftus emphasized the importance of building a workplace where clinicians want to build their careers. “We’ve invested a lot in well-being, retention and burnout prevention,” he said, pointing to recent success in recruiting radiologists at RWJBarnabas Health. “It’s not a panacea, but it helps.”
4. Health systems must plan far upstream to maintain stability.
Future-facing workforce strategies are increasingly focused on building internal pipelines and aligning training with system needs.
Dr. Loftus said RWJBarnabas is working more closely with its academic partner, Rutgers Health, to ensure graduates are prepared for real-world expectations. “More and more, we are integrating with that pipeline earlier on,” he said. “The earlier we can connect with them and help them get a sense of who we are as a system — that’s one of the biggest strategic focuses for the future.”
BJC Medical Group has launched new community-based residency programs to grow its own primary care and hospital medicine workforce. “These aren’t light-switch changes, but we’re committed,” Dr. Broom said. “In a tough environment like Missouri, we have to control costs — get people out of the ER, shorten hospital stays — and we need clinicians who are willing to partner with us to do that the right way.”
The session underscored that workforce stabilization in today’s healthcare environment is not a one-time fix but a sustained, strategic effort that must evolve with the industry.
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