Abstract
Retirement age and practice patterns before retirement are important for making accurate workforce predictions for orthopaedic surgeons. A survey of orthopaedic surgeons 50 years of age and older therefore was conducted by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in cooperation with the Association of American Medical Colleges Center for Workforce Studies. The survey focused on three questions: (1) At what age do orthopaedic surgeons retire? (2) Do they stop working abruptly or do they work part time before retirement? (3) What are the major factors that determine when an orthopaedic surgeon retires? According to the survey, the median retirement age for orthopaedic surgeons was 65 years. Nineteen percent of orthopaedic surgeons worked part time before retirement. Decreasing reimbursement and increasing malpractice costs were consistently cited as factors that strongly influenced retirement plans. Career satisfaction was high and was the strongest factor that kept the respondents in the workforce. The option to work part time would have the most impact on keeping orthopaedic surgeons working past the age of 65 years.
Level of Evidence: Level IV Economic and Decision Analyses. See the Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Farley FA, Weinstein JN, Aamoth GM, Shapiro MS, Jacobs J, McCarthy JC, Kramer J. Orthopaedic Workforce Taskforce to Board of Directors, American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, 2005–2006. Workforce analysis in orthopaedic surgery: how can we improve the accuracy of our predictions? J Am Acad Orthop Surg. 2007;15:268–273.
Greenfield LJ, Proctor MC. Attitudes toward retirement: a survey of the American Surgical Association. Ann Surg. 1994;220:382–389.
Harms BA, Heise CP, Gould JC, Starling JR. A 25-year single institution analysis of health, practice, and fate of general surgeons. Ann Surg. 2005;242:520–526; discussion 526–529.
Jonasson O, Kwakawa F. Retirement age and workforce in general surgery. Ann Surg. 1996;224:574–579; discussion 579–582.
Lee PP, Jackson CA, Relles DA. Demand-based assessment of workforce requirements for orthopaedic services. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 1998;80:313–326.
Ritter MA, Austrom MG, Zhou H, Hendrie HC. Retirement from orthopaedic surgery. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 1999;81:414–418.
Rovit RL. To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose: retirement and the neurosurgeon. J Neurosurg. 2004;100:1123–1129.
Acknowledgments
We thank Edward S. Salsberg, Director of the Center for Workforce Studies for the AAMC, for developing the survey and for valuable input into the manuscript. Reprinted with permission from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Each author certifies that he or she has no commercial associations (eg, consultancies, stock ownership, equity interest, patent/licensing arrangements, etc) that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article.
Each author certifies that his or her institution has approved or waived approval for the human protocol for this investigation and that all investigations were conducted in conformity with ethical principles of research.
Appendix A
Appendix A
Survey of Orthopaedic Surgeons Over 50 Questionnaire
About this article
Cite this article
Farley, F.A., Kramer, J. & Watkins-Castillo, S. Work Satisfaction and Retirement Plans of Orthopaedic Surgeons 50 Years of Age and Older. Clin Orthop Relat Res 466, 231–238 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-007-0014-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-007-0014-5