Across the country, healthcare leaders are confronting physician shortages that are accelerating faster than traditional staffing models can absorb. Rising patient demand, shifting expectations, and an aging physician workforce have pushed traditional staffing models and approaches to their limits.

During the Medicus-hosted panel at this year’s Becker’s CEO + CFO Roundtable, Dr. Matthew Broom from BJC Medical Group and Dr. Michael Loftus from RWJBarnabas Health shared their perspectives on why long-standing staffing playbooks no longer align with today’s realities and how organizations are rethinking their approach to future workforce needs.

The Problem: Traditional Staffing Models No Longer Match Today’s Physician Workforce Demands

When Dr. Broom joined BJC HealthCare, he saw how quickly the environment had shifted. Traditional approaches were no longer keeping pace with workforce expectations or operational demands. As he described, “We all recognize that you’ve got to come to the game with sneakers, right? It's moving fast. Things are changing quickly and often. What we used to do doesn't work anymore.”

The shift is most evident in specialties with aging workforces, where retiring physicians take with them a significant amount of clinical volume and expertise. Under today’s expectations for call, schedules, and work-life balance, that workload can’t be replaced on a one-to-one basis. Reflecting on this reality, Dr. Broom shared, “For any cardiologist, gastroenterologist that's retiring, I probably need two of our new graduates to replace them, because there's different dynamics on how people work, how they have different expectations, what is reasonable about call, what it is, what is work-life balance.”

These evolving expectations have led BJC to modernize its staffing approach and leave behind models that no longer align with how today’s clinicians want to work.

The Key Factors Reshaping Physician Staffing Models

  • Physician generational changes in work-life balance: Work-life balance has become a priority across the entire physician workforce, particularly among those newly entering practice. Dr. Broom noted that expectations around call coverage, schedules, and personal time differ markedly from those of previous generations. His observation mirrors broader national data. In the Medscape Physician Mental Health and Well-Being Report 2025, 63% of surveyed physicians said they would accept a pay cut for better work-life balance. 
  • Physician shortages are a long-term reality: Leaders can no longer view physician shortages as temporary. Dr. Loftus emphasized this directly: “There is always going to be a shortage. I think we can just anticipate that's the new normal.” This long-term imbalance requires new planning assumptions and more realistic workforce forecasting.
  • Reactive physician hiring no longer works: Physician hiring timelines continue to lengthen, with positions now averaging 224 days to fill and 318 days from contract signing to start date. By the time a search begins, backlogs, burnout, and longer wait times are often already building. More organizations are turning to interim healthcare staffing partners, such as the Medicus Transition Program, to stabilize their workforce while they implement long-term staffing strategies.

How Health Systems Are Building More Sustainable Physician Staffing Approaches

To meet today’s demands, both BJC Medical Group and RWJBarnabas Health are shifting toward physician staffing initiatives that support more intentional, systemwide workforce planning.

  • Building system-level visibility: RWJBarnabas Health has leaned heavily on scale to anticipate workforce needs earlier and more accurately. Dr. Loftus explained the importance of looking further upstream: “How can you start to identify where your shortages are going to be earlier? Other than being reactionary in response to a sudden shortage, can you look ahead down the line and say, Okay, what are we going to need three to five years down the line? Do we have the right trainees in our pipeline?” This long-range perspective helps align training, retention efforts, and workforce needs rather than relying on reactive, site-specific hiring.
  • Incorporating service lines to improve availability across markets: When Dr. Broom arrived at BJC Medical Group, historical growth patterns led to significant variation across markets. The lack of uniform structure made it harder to respond quickly to shifts in demand. As he described it, “We had clinics that were only 20% alike.” Transitioning to a service line model has increased transparency, consistency, and accountability across the system.
  • Modernizing staffing models to match current workforce expectations: Both leaders highlighted the importance of designing staffing approaches based on how clinicians practice today. This includes acknowledging realistic productivity patterns, reducing single points of failure, and integrating health systems or practices as ways to be more creative.

The insights from Dr. Broom and Dr. Loftus reflect a workforce environment that is changing faster than many traditional staffing approaches can accommodate. As physician shortages heighten and work-life balance becomes a priority across the physician workforce, leaders are turning to service line alignment and system-level visibility to create more dependable models of coverage. For organizations working through similar pressures, partnering with an interim healthcare staffing agency, such as Medicus, can help maintain stability while longer-term workforce strategies are implemented.

Interested in learning more about how the Medicus Transition Program can lead to clinical workforce stability? Click here or complete the short form below to connect with a member of the Medicus team.