If John was honest with himself, he knew it was coming. Dr. L had been signaling for months that she was ready to wind down, but John kept saying things like, “This place would fall apart without you!” as if the proclamation could prevent the inevitable. But now, with Dr. L’s formal notice in hand, John realized that even if he posted the job today, the likelihood of onboarding a suitable replacement before Dr. L’s departure was slim…
All too often, this is how the story unfolds, and by the time “John” reaches out to my team, the retiring physician’s departure is imminent. Although the physician was probably contemplating retirement for a year or more, the administrator remained in blissful ignorance, right up until the physician gave notice, which, at 6 weeks or 6 months, is never enough time to recruit, hire, and onboard a new physician.
It’s a communication failure, yes, but it’s also a design problem. Most organizations still treat retirement as an event to respond to rather than a professional transition to be structured. The latter approach encourages earlier retirement conversations and creates a gradual off-ramp for retiring physicians. With phased retirement, the physician stays on in a reduced but clearly defined role while the organization recruits, hires, and onboards a replacement.
The extended timeframe allows for the individual handoff of patients and a thorough transfer of institutional knowledge. It’s a change that benefits everyone involved. The physicians get to ease into one of the biggest changes of their lives. The organization gets a longer runway to recruit and transfer the exiting physician’s knowledge. And most importantly, the patients receive better continuity of care.
So, what would it take to implement phased retirements at your organization?
Closing the Physician Retirement Notice Gap
If every physician retired on their 65th birthday, planning for retirements would be easy. But of course, retirement is a very personal decision, and administrators are often hesitant to ask too many questions about an older physician’s timeline. Sometimes, it’s because they are not ready to hear the answer, but they also don’t want the physician to feel “pushed out.” The physicians may also hesitate because they don’t want to risk being pushed out before they are ready. This results in a sharp mismatch in expectations of adequate notice. According to Jackson Physician Search’s past retirement research, physicians think six months of notice is more than enough. Administrators would prefer one to three years.
Neither group is being unreasonable. Physicians are protecting a personal decision they may still be weighing. Administrators are looking at a recruitment cycle that rarely fits into the standard notice period. But when both sides avoid the physician retirement conversation, the organization suffers — in coverage gaps, in locum spend, and in the patients who wait.
A phased retirement framework gives physicians a reason to raise the subject early. When “I’m thinking about slowing down” leads to a conversation about a two-year ramp instead of an exit interview, physicians talk sooner. That alone justifies building the program.
Most Physicians Don’t Want a Hard Stop
The assumption that a retiring physician is finished with medicine is usually wrong. In the aforementioned research, just 12% of physicians said they intended to set a date and stop working altogether. Far more expected to reduce hours, shift to part-time, or contract elsewhere.
My colleague Tara Osseck has written about how much physician retirement has changed. Retirement is now a multi-year transition rather than a single date, and physicians increasingly design it around identity and purpose, not just finances.
For a healthcare leader, that’s good news. The physician you assumed you were losing may be open to working part-time for a few more years, but only if they know it’s an option.
What Phased Physician Retirement Looks Like in Practice
Health systems are recognizing the benefits of phased retirement and are starting to formalize it. Becker’s explored the topic back in May, reporting that Cottage Health in Santa Barbara had implemented a program letting retiring employees phase their retirement over two years while building succession plans across all levels. At Luminis Health, leaders encourage retirement planning conversations well in advance. The system’s CHRO told Becker’s the approach has helped retain experienced employees longer, strengthen knowledge transfer, and reduce operational gaps during transitions.
Sometimes the fix is smaller than a program. At Essentia Health, CEO David Herman, MD, described two physicians weighing retirement — one who preferred inpatient work, one who preferred outpatient. The system restructured their duties to match, and both told him they had another five years in them.
A few design principles worth holding onto:
Define the ramp in writing. Work together to define a schedule — FTE, call obligations, and an end date — not a vague promise to see how it goes.
Put benefits on the table early. Health coverage and retirement plan treatment drive these decisions more than compensation does.
Ask what they want to keep, not just what to cut. Some want procedures. Some want their continuity patients. Some want teaching, mentoring, or committee work. Cut the wrong half of the job and the phase ends early.
Start recruiting on day one of the phase. Maximize the runway you built for yourself.
Align the Phase With the Search
This is where phased retirement proves invaluable. Once the ramp is defined, the search has a real deadline and overlap window, which means the incoming physician can shadow, inherit a warm patient panel, and be introduced to referring providers by the physician who built those relationships. There are multiple ways to support physicians through the transition, and mentorship sits at the center of nearly all of them.
Succession planning remains the industry’s weak link. An MGMA STAT Poll from earlier this year found 33% of medical groups had succession plans. While this figure is much improved over the 16% of organizations who reported succession planning in our 2021 research, it still leaves two-thirds without a plan. A phased retirement policy is a practical place to start, because it forces the conversation onto a specific physician, with a specific timeline, in a specific department.
Build It Before You Need It
The physicians most likely to give you a long runway are the ones who believe the conversation is safe to have. Build the framework now, publish it, and make sure your late-career physicians know it exists. The organizations handling retirements well aren’t the ones with the youngest medical staff. They’re the ones that decided, in advance, what a good transition looks like.
Whether you’re anticipating retirements in the next few months or the next few years, the team at Jackson Physician Search has the expertise and experience to guide you through the timeline and help you find a physician who will fit, succeed, and stay. Reach out to our recruitment team today to learn more.
About Neal Waters
Neal’s career in retained physician search began 20 years ago. Early on, he recognized the strain an entire community feels when there is a shortage of physicians to meet patient demand. Since his first successful placement, Neal’s passion for identifying the best providers for each healthcare organization with which he recruits has grown.
Neal serves as Regional Vice President of Recruiting. In his role, he serves as a mentor to a growing team of Jackson Physician Search recruiters. He also enjoys collaborating with in-house recruiters who are dedicated to optimizing their physician recruitment and candidate acquisition strategies. Likewise, Neal specializes in helping physicians, especially residents and those early in their careers, advance their professional careers by finding the right fit.
