Provider Satisfaction Study

As the military health system (MHS) evolves to meet the managed care environment of the peacetime benefit mission, Navy Medicine in particular, and DOD in general, must continue to concern themselves with three principles: (1) Navy Medicine will attract and access quality individuals; (2) the medical department will retain the best of the people accessed; and (3) the best people will want to remain in the military because of the challenge, training, professional ism, and overall environment of Navy Medicine. DOD implemented TRICARE to maximize the quality of healthcare while minimizing the cost of that care. To meet this goal, military medicine must continue to attract and retain quality personnel under this changing work environment. Given these challenges and concerns, the Navy Surgeon General asked CNA to evaluate physicians' job satisfaction within the existing climate to determine whether major problems exist that adversely affect relation of specialists. We have examined Navy physician retention and compensation patterns over the past decade, and find that there has been a decline in retention for the majority of specialists, but the cause and extent of the decline are difficult to quantify. We have attempted to identify the main drivers behind this decline, including compensation, work environment, and promotion opportunity. Contrary to anecdotal evidence, there has been no decline in promotion opportunity] however, we do find that the military- pay gap has been widened by 4 to 24 percent for most specialties during the 1990s.