Eight percent of U.S. doctors have closed their practices because of COVID-19, according to a survey from the nonprofit Physicians Foundation. That translates to roughly 16,000 fewer practices nationwide. Another survey, from Medscape, found that a quarter of doctors are considering retiring early.

“If the location is not the right fit for you and your family, that may not be the best practice for you,” says Gary Price, M.D., president of The Physicians Foundation.

The COVID-19 pandemic is resulting in a number of physicians retiring early due to financial issues and personal health concerns.

Those on the medical frontline were working long hours under dangerous conditions, but the newly minted heroes held out hope that, if they could weather the surges, fellow Americans would do their part to stem the tide of cases.

Life as we know it has been upended by the COVID-19 pandemic. Every aspect of our health care system is affected; in particular, our nation’s frontline workers are being stretched like never before.

Although no one tracks medical closures, recent research suggests they number in the thousands. A survey by the Physicians Foundation estimated that 8% of all physician practices nationally — around 16,000 — have closed under the stress of the pandemic.

The density of primary care clinicians throughout the United States recently increased, but more so in urban counties, according to a cross-sectional study published in JAMA Network Open.

Despite the flood of consistently bad news on the pandemic, there are some hopeful signs on the horizon.

Thousands of medical practices are closing, as doctors and nurses decide to retire early or shift to less intense jobs.

The final installment of The Physician Foundation’s 2020 Survey of America’s Physicians series recently found that 67 percent of physicians prefer a two-tiered system featuring a single-payer option in addition to more traditional private payer coverage.