Succeeding At Recruiting And Retaining Physicians

SUCCEEDING AT RECRUITING AND RETAINING PHYSICIANS Most of the time, the part of Physician Recruiting that is most visible is the Interview, follow-up, decision and contract. But the real work, the Sweat-Equity, that pays off in the Success of the Interview happens behind the scenes in the preparation, sourcing and screening before you ever have a Physician to interview. Understanding the marketplace is the key first step in Recruiting new Physicians for your hospital or group. Many times hiring managers tell us Recruiters, “Just get us the physician to interview, and we’ll take care of the rest.” I always cringe when hear that, because that means our client or potential client does not understand the current marketplace and the best use of Recruiters. Just getting a doctor to interview may be the toughest challenge you will face. The first step to understanding the market is to understand Supply and Demand. This is the toughest Physician Recruiting Market in literally decades. Our population is aging at an increasing rate, with Baby Boomers retiring and accessing more healthcare than ever before. Our overall population is growing at a whopping 24% rate, putting more stress on an already overburdened healthcare system. While at the same time, our nation’s residency program has continued to deliver the same number of graduates year after year. We haven’t increased our physician numbers is more than 20 years. And just as our population is aging, so are our physicians, with fully one third age 55 or older. Projections of a looming U.S. physician shortage are expected to peak by the year 2020,with the shortage expected to range from 85,000 to 200,000 – American Medical Association Female physicians are now a large part of the market (in 2010 females are expected to comprise 33% of all doctors) and are in demand in primary care positions. However, female physicians usually have two jobs – that of mother and often head of household, as well as physician. This impacts the number of hours she can devote to patient care. Going forward Primary Care will either be done by female physicians or International Medical Graduates (IMGs). IMGs are the top of their population. They must be tested extensively to enter US Residency programs. Most are excellent physicians. About 37% of all Internal Medicine physicians coming out of residency are IMGs. So, limit your search by age, and you eliminate one third of the viable physicians in the market. Again, gender bias, and bias against IMGs whittle your candidate pool to virtually nil. Re-think your requirements and put them in writing, and do your search based on thorough knowledge of the physician marketplace. The Key Issue facing our healthcare system is not the flu, or a pandemic or even bio-terrorism, it’s the lack of physicians. There are just not enough to go around. So, if you want to hire physicians for your hospital or group, you are going to have to get creative. Nothing happens in our healthcare system without the Doctor. He examines the patient, writes the prescriptions, orders tests, admits patients to the hospital and more. Without doctors, hospitals would simply be over priced hotels with bad food. Now that you understand the national physician shortage, take a look a why you have openings. Retention is the basic issue in recruiting new physicians. Why are your physicians leaving? Are your openings simply a result of growth, or do you have a retention problem? Are peer physicians highly though of? You attract physicians the same way you retain them. In order to retain physicians, your facility needs to be efficient, communication needs to be open, the physician and staff need to be remunerated effectively, and the overall work environment should be as appealing as possible. As recruiters we can tell you that physicians are not pulled from their practice, they are pushed. Your retention plan should include: ,[object Object]

Physician employment. Physicians tell us they don’t want to have to worry about running the business.

Hospitalist Program so they can see their children grow up.

Succeeding At Recruiting And Retaining Physicians

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Succeeding At Recruiting And Retaining Physicians