Nearly 300 primary care doctors at Mass General Brigham have petitioned to unionize.
The group, if approved, would join the Doctors Council, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union representing attending physicians nationwide.
While the MGB group does not yet have an official platform, issues of concern include understaffing, burnout and a lack of resources to help manage patient care such as mental health support, according to one of the organizers of the effort.
Michael Barnett, M.D., a primary care doctor at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and associate professor of health policy and management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told Fierce Healthcare in an email he “definitely” expects to see more physician unions in the future.
“I think that health systems have grown too large, too powerful and too ‘financialized’ for most physicians to feel like their organizations reflect what matters to them and their patients,” Barnett wrote.
A vote to unionize could take place as soon as in two months, according to The Boston Globe, and would reportedly make the group the largest union of attending physicians in Massachusetts. Medical residents and fellows at MGB voted to unionize in 2023.
This past spring, MGB announced it would consolidate its two flagship hospitals’ clinical and academic teams into one department to encourage cooperation and integrated care delivery. But the move has reportedly led to bureaucracy and high staff turnover.
Barnett confirmed this integration has “accelerated” the decision to organize and has led to “a lot of tension.”
“The new presidents of MGH and BWH are also the presidents of their respective physicians’ organizations, which led to widespread concern that one minor check on hospital authority, the physician organization, was being essentially erased,” he wrote. “On top of that, communication around integration has been very unsatisfying and corporate, making docs feel more alienated than before.”
A spokesperson for MGB told Fierce Healthcare in a statement that PCPs are crucial to the community and acknowledged that many face “unprecedented volume and stress as a result of a confluence of factors that are not unique to our organization.”
The spokesperson said the best way to achieve the goal of providing quality care is “by working together in direct partnership, rather than through representatives in a process that can lead to conflict and potentially risk the continuity of patient care.”
The spokesperson added that the health system is committed to an ongoing dialogue with PCPs and to investing in ways to reduce burden during “this challenging time.”