What percent of physicians leave medical practice within 10 or 20
years of getting out of med school?

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Clarification of Question by gremlin-ga on 21 Apr 2003 11:44 PDT

I'm especially interested in what fraction of doctors quit within
their first decade after coming out of medical school.

http://www.aamc.org/newsroom/reporter/july2000/woes.htm

Fast facts about doctors leaving medicine 
Packing up and moving on: 

Nearly half of doctors age 50 or older plan to leave medicine within
the next three years.
38 percent plan to retire. 
12 percent plan to seek jobs in nonmedical settings. 
Only 18 percent of older physicians plan to continue in their current
style of practice.
53 percent of doctors have closed their practice to new patients. 
Top complaints: 

56 percent of physicians cite managed care as first on their list of
professional frustrations.
Nearly 50 percent of physicians point to managed care as a
"significant factor" or the "single most significant factor" in their
decision to change their style of practice.
15 percent report Medicare/Medicaid regulations as their primary
frustration.
Do it all over again? 

50 percent of physicians would choose medicine as a career if they
were starting out today.
42 percent would encourage their children to choose medicine as a
career.
60 percent say "patient relationships" are the single greatest source
of their professional satisfaction.
Health care quality assessment: 

54 percent of physicians indicate that the quality of health care in
the U.S. has "generally improved" over the last 20 years.
21 percent of physicians believe health care has "generally remained
the same."
24 percent think the quality of care has "generally declined." 
-Excerpted from "Year 2000 Survey of Physicians 50 Years Old and
Older," Merritt, Hawkins & Associates

http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2001/04/16/story2.html

Most doctors do stick with the profession after graduating. Cohen said
only about 10 percent of graduates


leave medicine for consulting or even investment banking jobs, while
the rest use their MBAs to move into administrative jobs at their
hospitals or to run their departments more efficiently.