The Association of Staff Physician Recruiters (ASPR) released its 2012 In-House Physician Recruitment Benchmarking Report. The 2012 Benchmarking Report includes an analysis of physician and advanced practice provider searches conducted in 2011 by in-house physician recruiters employed by hospitals and other healthcare organizations across the United States.
“The Benchmarking Report reveals national trends for the physician recruitment industry,” says Shelley Tudor, chair of the ASPR Benchmarking Committee and member-at-large of the ASPR Board of Directors. “Benchmarks are critical for our industry, as we constantly strive for improved processes and results to meet the healthcare needs within our communities.”
The report validates major trends in physician recruitment:
- The difficulty finding physicians continues; between 2011 and 2012, there was an increase of 18 percent in positions unfilled.
- There is a movement towards employed physician models; the report shows that 71 percent of searches are done by hospitals/integrated delivery systems, up 10 percent from last year.
- Although referrals and Internet job boards remain at the top of the sourcing list, 12 percent of candidates contacted hospitals directly through their website, indicating providers are taking a more active role in finding the right position and the importance of an organization’s online presence.
“The increased demand, coupled with the inability to fill the open positions, leaves many communities without enough physicians to provide the healthcare they need,” says Tudor. “In fact, the report shows that the cost of recruitment is going up, making it harder for rural healthcare organizations to compete. A clear correlation exists between the facilities’ population size and acceptance rates, with offers from organizations in larger populations much more likely to be accepted than those in smaller populations.” Specialties that were least likely to be filled during 2011 were medicine/pediatrics, neurosurgery, dermatology, urology and otorhinolaryngology (ENT).
“With the passage of healthcare reform legislation and the physician shortage upon us, physician recruitment has become increasingly competitive, and organizations are finding it more difficult to fill their open provider positions,” says Tudor. “We believe this report will help healthcare organizations estimate how long it may take to fill certain positions, calculate costs to fill a vacancy and make strategic recruitment decisions to deal with the physician shortage.”