C.S. Boutros1,2, E.L. Risa1,2, O.S. Pawar1,2, A.M. Bassiri1,2, J.B. Ammori1,2, J. Freischlag3, P.A. Linden1,2, C.W. Towe1,2 1University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Surgery, Cleveland, OHIO, USA 2Case Western Reserve University School Of Medicine, Surgery, Cleveland, OH, USA 3Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, Surgery, Winston-Salem, NC, USA
Introduction: The retirement patterns of physicians and surgeons can be influenced by a range of factors, including gender, specialty, and practice settings. Understanding these patterns is crucial for workforce planning. We hypothesize that male surgeons have longer career durations and are less likely to retire compared to their female counterparts, with significant variations across different specialties.
Methods: Data from the CMS National Downloadable Database from 2014 – 2024 were analyzed to determine career duration and retirement status for surgeons and physicians in various medical subspecialties. The outcome of interest was career duration, which was defined as the most recent year a physician appeared in the database minus their graduation year. Retirement was defined as the year that the physician NPI was no longer in the database. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression explored demographic variables, practice settings, and temporal trends to comprehensively understand factors contributing to career duration and retirement status. An interaction analysis was conducted to determine the odds of retirement status based on specialty and gender.
Results: Among 280,727 physicians in the CMS database, the retirement rate was 33.8% for females and 33.7% for males (p = 0.69), Females physicians had significantly shorter careers than male physicians (30.9 years vs 35.6 years, p < 0.001). Among surgeons, there were fewer retired female surgeons (29.6% vs 32.6%, p < 0.001), but male surgeons had longer careers (39.8 years vs 31.1 years, p < 0.001). Multivariable logistic regression suggested that male surgeons were more likely remain in the workforce in 2024 (OR 1.5, CI 1.34 – 1.60) when adjusting for graduation year, region, and credentials. An additional interaction analysis regression model revealed that (compared to male general surgeons), female cardiac surgeons (OR 0.32, CI 0.14 – 0.74), female general surgeons (OR 0.80, CI 0.70 – 0.92), female orthopedic surgeons (OR 0.66, CI 0.52-0.833), female urologists (OR 0.62, CI 0.46 – 0.82), and female plastic surgeons (OR 0.52, CI 0.42 – 0.71) were significantly less likely to remain in the workforce in 2024. In comparison to male general surgeons, female thoracic surgeons and female colorectal surgeons had similar odds of remaining in the workforce in 2024.
Conclusion: These data suggests that male surgeons have longer careers and are more likely to remain in the workforce compared to their female counterparts. Gender disparities are evident across various surgical specialties, with female surgeons showing significantly lower odds of remaining in the workforce by 2024. These findings highlight the need for targeted interventions to support career longevity among female surgeons and further address the gender gap in the surgical workforce.