Retirement and Succession Planning

Supporting physicians to transition from practice is key to continuity of care for patients and can enable recruitment of new physicians.

Retiring Physicians

• Early assessment of the needs of retiring physicians can ease their transition. What supports are required for:
  • Finding a replacement?
  • Financial management?
  • Managing charts?
  • Informing patients?
  • Part-time work opportunities?
• Check-in with physicians via a physician survey and/or face-to-face meetings to monitor, project, and prepare for retirements.

Tip: Remember that retiring/retired physicians are valuable community assets who may opt to work part-time before complete retirement and may even commit to serve as mentors to new physicians.

Other Physician Departures

• Other than retirement, physicians may leave a practice in your community and relocate to another community, within or outside of BC, for various reasons including a change in lifestyle or family circumstance, a better fit/match, or another more appealing practice opportunity. Some physician departures are outside the control of the division and the community.

Assess why physicians leave

• Whether a physician leaves practice for retirement or other reasons, it is important to capture the reasons for departure in order to prevent avoidable departures and prevent patient unattachment. An exit interview is a good way to capture this information.