This past year, numerous people have informed me that physicians in the DC area are walking away from practices in large numbers. Although this is reported anecdotally, patients trying to find pediatricians, pulmonologists, allergists, psychiatrists, and other specialties are having an increasingly hard time finding them. A few docs have moved out of the area. Many of them are retiring, sometimes abruptly. Others are reporting they're "taking a break" from practice, and still others are just walking away, leaving their staff to tell patients they don't know where the docs went.

A number of ER docs have left the area as a result of the taking over of ER facilities by larger medical practices, who focus on using less expensive nurse practitioners to staff them (with considerably less training) to reduce cost while encouraging them to order more expensive tests to increase profit.This is leaving some seriously ill patients out in the lurch without having the care properly transitioned.

Don't have any hard numbers on this, but reports of this are way more than they've been in the past. It has a feel of panic...