Career disaffection among surgeons in the era of managed care

The purpose of this paper is to assess career satisfaction of surgeons in the era of managed care. The method of this assessment is by membership survey of the Southeastern Surgical Congress and the Western Surgical Association. Members were queried about their demographic characteristics, some aspects of the business of their practices, their attitudes toward retirement, their perception of the effectiveness of organized medicine as a socioeconomic advocate, and a comparison of each surgeon's career satisfaction before and during the era of managed care. Three hundred seventy-three usable surveys were returned, computerized, and analyzed statistically. Summaries of categorical variables are presented as percentages for various groupings of the categorical set. Results reveal a broad-based career disaffection in all areas queried, most notably in the business of surgical practice, attitude toward retirement and retirement alternatives, and the advocacy role of organized medicine for their issues. There is an almost unanimous desire for the American College of Surgeons to become their aggressive socioeconomic advocate. The data support a conclusion that surgeons perceive they are not represented in a realistic manner with the insurance companies and the government when their core issues are decided.