Health system and medical group practice leaders can’t afford to overlook physician well-being. When physicians feel heard, respected, and genuinely supported, they don’t just come to work — they show up for their patients, their colleagues, and the mission of medicine itself.
On the flip side, a dissatisfied doctor is more likely to burn out and provide diminished care. As pressures mount — from tighter budgets to rising patient loads — regularly measuring and addressing physician satisfaction isn’t just a nicety; it’s a strategic imperative. By listening to physicians’ triumphs, troubles, and suggestions for change, organizations can create environments that foster resilience, boost morale, and, ultimately, improve patient outcomes.
A March 11, 2025, MGMA Stat poll found that almost half (45%) of practice leaders survey their physicians annually on job satisfaction or engagement, while 14% do so at least quarterly, 29% said they never do, and 13% responded “other.” Among those responding “other,” the most common responses were conducting surveys every other year or twice a year. The poll had 318 applicable responses.
Respondents whose organizations do some form of physician satisfaction or engagement surveys were asked how their scores changed over the past year: Nearly half (49%) reported no change, while 32% report higher/improved scores, and 19% noted lower/worsening scores.
Survey scope: Key factors to measure
A well-rounded physician survey should cover multiple factors that impact job satisfaction and engagement. For example: The American Medical Association’s annual physician survey measures indicators such as job satisfaction, stress, burnout, feeling valued, and more. [Click here for MGMA’s member-benefit Employee Satisfaction Survey Template.]
In practice, effective surveys address:
- Overall job satisfaction and morale — This could include questions about whether physicians would choose this profession again if they were starting over.
- Burnout and stress — Use a validated scale, such as the Maslach Burnout Inventory, to measure emotional exhaustion and quantify burnout symptoms.
- Work-life balance and workload — Address hours worked, scheduling flexibility, and ability to balance professional and personal life.
- Engagement and feeling valued — Doctors who feel valued are less likely to have burnout.
- Autonomy and administrative burden — Measure satisfaction with clinical autonomy and frustrations with bureaucracy (e.g., EHR usability, paperwork). [Read more in “The road to achieving physician engagement.”]
- Teamwork and support — Assess perceptions of leadership support, teamwork, and opportunities for growth or recognition.
By including these factors, an internal survey can pinpoint what’s contributing to or detracting from physicians’ professional joy in practice and target interventions to those areas.
Internal surveys, external benchmarks
Most physician engagement surveys are internal efforts to monitor the work climate, often customized to the group’s specific environment and priorities, providing immediate feedback at the local level. For example, a large academic department might deploy an annual third-party engagement survey to its faculty and staff, then use those results to drive department-specific improvements.
The advantage of internal surveys is their flexibility — they offer granular insights into physician concerns and can be adapted as needed (e.g. a short “pulse” survey after a major change). They also demonstrate to clinicians that leadership is listening to their voices.
However, internal results hold greater meaning when benchmarked against broader datasets. Many practices incorporate questions from validated survey instruments or partner with external vendors to compare their scores to industry norms. This benchmarking helps determine whether physician engagement levels are above or below national averages.
Survey platforms: Make it easy
Digital platforms are now the standard for physician engagement surveys. Common approaches include emailing a unique survey link (via tools such as Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey, or vendor platforms), or making the survey accessible through an internal portal. Many health systems rely on third-party survey vendors (such as Press Ganey, Gallup, or NRC Health) to administer surveys electronically, offering features like automated email reminders, response rate tracking, and report generation with minimal manual effort.
However, traditional paper surveys might still be useful in certain scenarios, such as smaller, in-person physician meetings or retreats.
Overall, web-based and mobile-friendly surveys are considered best practice due to their convenience and streamlined data collection. To encourage participation, surveys should be brief (under 10 minutes), confidential, and accessible on any device. Offering the survey in multiple formats (email link, QR code, etc.) can help maximize response rates.
Some health systems and medical groups also supplement an annual survey with “pulse” surveys — very short, quarterly polls (one to three questions) sent via email or text — to check the temperature on specific issues. These can be delivered through simple platforms (even an EHR messaging system or intranet poll) to capture quick feedback between larger surveys. The goal is to reduce barriers to participation and amplify clinician voices.
Action plan: From results to interventions
Collecting survey data is only the first step — the real impact comes from doing something with the results. Best practices combine leadership-driven changes with peer-led initiatives, ensuring institutional-level changes and grassroots engagement.
After the survey, leadership should demonstrate commitment to addressing issues, while physicians should be engaged in crafting solutions. A balanced strategy might look like this:
- Analyze and share results: Form a small workgroup or task force — ideally including physicians— to identify a handful of priority areas and distinguish between immediate concerns and long-term efforts.
- Leadership-driven interventions: Tackle systemic problems that physicians cannot fix alone, such as reducing administrative burdens or improving support staff levels. However, top-down solutions must involve clinician input to avoid disconnects or breeding cynicism. Leadership must pair their actions with genuine listening. Another challenge is sustainability: big initiatives need continued oversight.
- Peer-led initiatives: Engage physician peers in driving grassroots improvements. One proven tactic is to form a physician well-being committee or workgroup to explore specific survey concerns, and brainstorm solutions. Peer-led efforts benefit from credibility and buy-in — doctors are more likely to engage with an initiative championed by their colleagues.
- Collaborative communication and action: The ideal approach blends leadership and peer efforts. For example, your action plan might involve administrative leadership removing two bureaucratic tasks that physicians hate (a top-down fix) while a physician task force creates an onboarding buddy program for new doctors (a peer-led project). Regular collaboration is vital, keeping physicians informed about actions taken in response to their feedback.
A balanced strategy — where leadership commits to action and physicians are engaged in solutions — has clear advantages: physicians feel heard and empowered, and leadership ensures changes are aligned with organizational capabilities. The main challenge is coordination. It requires deliberate effort to keep physicians and administrators moving in the same direction.
Sharing results and driving engagement
How you present survey results is crucial for maintaining trust and spurring action. Physicians will be keen to know what the survey revealed and what will be done about it. Here are best practices for reviewing and presenting the data effectively:
- Timely and transparent reporting: Share findings as soon as possible. First, provide a high-level summary, highlighting key scores (e.g., overall satisfaction, burnout rate) and noting areas of strength and those needing improvement. Be transparent — even if some results are disappointing, honesty builds credibility.
- Team meetings for discussion: Dedicate a portion of regular physician or departmental meetings to walking through the results and getting feedback. Start with positives (“Where we scored well”) to acknowledge successes, then discuss challenges (“Where we need to improve”).
- Use visual aids: Graphs, charts, or interactive dashboards (e.g., Tableau or PowerBI) make data easier to digest. Showing trend line over time can spark conversations on what’s driving changes. In the meeting, invite clinicians to interpret the results, turning the presentation into a dialogue rather than a one-way report-out. These discussions help reveal the “story behind the numbers” — for example, a low score on EHR satisfaction might prompt anecdotes that it’s due to recent software updates, providing clear guidance on what needs fixing.
- Ongoing communication and follow-up: After the initial results roll out, keep physicians updated on progress. Brief progress emails, status reports, or a “stoplight” report show that feedback is driving change, reinforcing trust and honest feedback in future surveys.
- Close the loop and celebrate improvements: When you conduct the next survey, share how scores shifted. If burnout rates dropped or satisfaction rose, acknowledge the hard work that went into those gains (and any interventions you did). Recognizing successful initiatives and those who led them builds a culture in which acting on feedback is a regular practice.
How often you ask your physicians about job satisfaction might vary, but these best practices can help you turn the survey from a one-time measurement into a powerful tool for engagement.
Do you have any best practices or success stories to share on this topic? Please let us know by emailing us at connection@mgma.com.
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