Whoever said the only constant is change could have been talking about physician recruitment over the last few years! The latest AAPPR Benchmarking Report is a great way to understand all of the shifts and learn valuable insights, current challenges, and the best strategies to enhance your recruitment efforts.
% of Searches Filled
The latest data from AAPPR reveals significant challenges in physician recruitment, with only 39.7% of positions successfully filled. Additionally, with 9.7% of positions canceled and 3.5% placed on hold, many searches remain unfilled.
Specific Specialties Fill Rates
- Neurology: 30%
- Gastroenterology: 30.2%
- Urology: 32%
- Neurosurgery: 34.9%
The trend toward subspecialization for specialty physicians means that positions in neurology, gastroenterology, urology, and neurosurgery become exceedingly difficult to fill due to the limited number of candidates with the necessary expertise.
Offer Acceptance Rates and Recruitment Success
Physician offer acceptance rates are a critical indicator of recruitment success. In the most recent recruitment cycle, 70.9% of offers given to physicians were accepted. This high acceptance rate suggests that recruitment processes are effectively aligning with the expectations and preferences of physicians.
The rise in department recruiting budgets further underscores the importance of these efforts. Budgets increased significantly from $500,000 in 2021 to $717,100 in 2022, reflecting a growing investment in attracting top talent in an incredibly competitive market.
High-Demand Specialties
Despite high acceptance rates and increases in budgets, difficult-to-fill specialties continue to experience demand that greatly outstrips the supply of job-seeking specialists. Neurology and hospital medicine, for instance, have both ranked among the top 10 most searched-for specialties over the past five years.
Furthermore, the specific demand statistics reveal the breadth of the need across specialties:
- Neurology: 57.5% of practices are seeking a neurologist.
- Gastroenterology: 64.4% of practices are seeking a gastroenterologist.
- Hospital Medicine: 56.2% of practices are seeking a hospitalist.
- Neurosurgery: 35.6% of practices are seeking a neurosurgeon.
- Urology: 54.8% of practices are seeking a urologist.
Time-to-Fill
The time it takes to fill physician positions is a critical metric for healthcare recruitment, reflecting both the demand for specialties and the efficiency of recruitment processes. The latest data from 2023 provides valuable insights into these dynamics, highlighting notable trends and areas of concern.
In 2023, the average time to fill a specialty care physician position increased to 138 days, up from 126 days in 2022. Surgical physician recruitment also saw an increase in its the time-to-fill metric. In 2023, it took an average of 147 days to fill these positions, up from 121 days in 2022. As the projected physician shortage continues, it’s likely that we may see these metrics continue to rise.
Specific Specialties
The data further breaks down the time-to-fill across various specialties, providing a detailed view of the recruitment landscape:
- Neurology: 158 days
- Urology: 344 days
- Gastroenterology: 117 days
- Neurosurgery: 254 days
These figures reveal significant variations among specialties, with urology and neurosurgery taking considerably longer to fill than gastroenterology. The extended time-to-fill for urology (344 days) and neurosurgery (254 days) are driven by physician shortages and high demand, necessitating targeted strategies to attract candidates to these difficult-to-fill positions.
Conclusion
Understanding the latest trends in physician recruitment will help you develop effective hiring strategies. By addressing the challenges and leveraging the data insights, you can enhance your efforts to attract and retain top talent in the highly competitive healthcare market.
Do you have questions? Want to talk about how our statistics beat the market in the most competitive specialties? Call us! We would love to talk through your most challenging issues and are always here to help (even if you never hire us!).
