13 Keys To Effective Physician Recruiting

Healthcare Technology Trends in 2024: Enabling Patient Care at Home 13 Keys to Effective Physician Recruiting

Introduction AMN Healthcare, the nation’s leading healthcare workforce solutions company, produces a wide range of thought leadership resources on various healthcare workforce related topics. These resources include surveys, reports, podcasts, speaking presentations and white papers. In this white paper, AMN Healthcare’s Physician Solutions division (formerly known as Merritt Hawkins) examines best practices in physician recruiting, beginning with a brief look at current physician recruiting market dynamics.

Physician Recruiting Market Dynamics

Physician recruiting nationwide continues to take place in the context of constrained physician supply and increasing demand for physician services.

In its April 2024 report, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) projected a shortage of up to 86,000 physicians by 2036 ( The Complexities of Physician Supply and Demand: Projections From 2021 to 2036. AAMC. April 2024 ). The report cautioned that should growth in the number of current medical residency positions not materialize, physician shortages could be significantly more severe. The AAMC report further noted that “if communities underserved by the nation’s health care system could obtain care at the same rate as populations with better access to care, the nation would need approximately 202,800 more physicians as of 2021.”

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13 Keys To Effective Physician Recruiting

The surging demand for physicians is underscored by AMN Healthcare’s Survey of Final-Year Medical Residents , which asks graduating medical residents to indicate the number of times they were contacted by recruiters about job opportunities during their training (see chart below).

About how many times during the course of your residency have you been solicited about medical practice job opportunities by hospitals, medical groups or other employers?

3% 0 - 10

5% 11 - 25

14% 26 - 50

22% 51 - 100

56% Over 100

Source: Survey of Final-Year Medical Residents. AMN Healthcare. 2023.

The majority of residents responding to the survey (56%) indicated they had been contacted over 100 times by recruiters about job opportunities during their training. This is the highest percent of final-year residents indicating they had received 100 or more job solicitations since AMN Healthcare/Merritt Hawkins first conducted the survey in 1991.

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13 Keys To Effective Physician Recruiting

Additional detailed information on the current physician recruiting market is included in AMN Healthcare’s white paper: The Physician Shortage: Projections, Causes and Solutions.

Given current market dynamics, hospitals, medical groups, and other physician employers should implement physician recruiting programs that are strategic, thorough, resource-based, flexible and responsive. To implement effective physician recruiting plans, healthcare facilities should:

1. Accept the process for what it is Recruiting a new physician can be critical to the quality of care a healthcare facility is able to provide its patients, as well as the access to care it can offer. Physicians also bring an important financial dimension to the practices or staffs they join. According to AMN Healthcare’s Physician Billing Report, physicians on average bill $3.8 million a year to commercial payors alone, not including billing submitted to Medicare and other government payors. Through the hospital admission they generate, tests they order, treatments they perform and other activities, physicians act as the economic engines for the facilities by which they are employed or with which they are affiliated. Healthcare facilities should therefore treat the physician recruiting process with the seriousness it deserves. Time, effort, resources and responsiveness will be required to find a physician who is a long-term fit. Healthcare leaders should be prepared to be personally involved in the physician recruiting process, shaping strategies, incentives, and candidate parameters, and, of most importance, ensuring responsiveness and timely decision making.

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13 Keys To Effective Physician Recruiting

2. Self-diagnose An initial step when recruiting physicians, and perhaps the most important one, is to examine the opportunity to determine what it offers. Healthcare facility leaders cannot control where the practice opportunity they are offering to physicians is located, the weather, or the cultural amenities of the area. They can determine how the practice is structured, equipped, and administrated, its culture, and how physicians are compensated. It is the quality of the practice being offered that will be decisive in the effort to attract candidates. Make sure that what the practice is offering reflects the realities of the market and the type of workplace most physicians today seek. 3. Have a vision The healthcare system continues to undergo a transition from a volume-based model of reimbursement to a value-based model. Candidates will want to know where the practice is heading in the context of these changes. Is it converting to quality-based reimbursement metrics? Will there be mergers or partnerships with other larger entities? Will it incorporate team-based medicine, population health management, the patient- centered medical home, or become part of an Accountable Care Organization? Why will there be a need for a new physician? Is the culture of the practice going to be entrepreneurial and revenue-based, or will lifestyle be the primary emphasis? It is important to have a roadmap showing physicians where the practice is going and what sets your opportunity apart from others.

4. Formalize expectations In addition to knowing where the practice is heading, candidates should know exactly what will be expected of them. Before beginning the search, healthcare facilities should formalize in writing the hours candidates will be expected to keep, number of patients they will be expected to see, types of patients they will see, relative value units (RVUs) they will be expected to generate, governance responsibilities, and additional expectations. Confusion over expectations (a feeling of “this is not what I signed up for” ) is a primary cause of physician turnover and should be avoided. A practice

opportunity description should be shared with all stakeholders so that when the candidate speaks with each member of the recruiting committee, they will hear a consistent message.

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13 Keys To Effective Physician Recruiting

5. Be flexible Physicians are becoming more diverse in many ways and one practice size may not fit all, particularly when it comes to schedules. Part-time schedules, telemedicine (or a hybrid opportunity featuring an on-site and off- site work model), and other flexible practice options are becoming more important to physicians, even more important than compensation levels, in some cases. Though it may necessitate a cultural shift, accommodate candidate practice preferences where possible in terms of schedules, types of patients seen, types of procedures performed, work models, etc. The ability to be flexible and tailor the practice to candidate needs can be decisive in today’s evolving physician recruiting market. 6. Make compensation competitive, clear, and fair A variety of organizations, including the Medical Group Management Association, the American Medical Group Association and AMN Healthcare provide data on physician compensation by specialty. Use this data to arrive at a competitive starting salary offer. While offering a competitive salary is important, in today’s market the formula by which physicians are compensated can be just as important as the amount they are paid. The key is to keep compensation formulas clear, understandable, and logical. Increasingly, some portion of physician compensation today will be linked to value-based metrics such as patient satisfaction scores, adherence to treatment protocols, and others. These typically are balanced against volume-based metrics such as RVUs, net revenue, and number of patients seen. The result can be a complex and even contradictory maze of incentives that leave physicians confused and frustrated. The simpler the compensation formula is to understand, the better. The formula also should be perceived as fair, with the methods by which physicians are compensated understood and accepted by physicians in the group.

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13 Keys To Effective Physician Recruiting

7. Prioritize the “workshop” It is important that the practice offers the type of day-to-day work conditions that most physicians prefer. Today, this may include user-friendly EHR systems, particularly if the practice is part of a larger, integrated network. To the greatest extent possible, billing, coding and compliance data entry duties should be handled by scribes or otherwise minimized. The more physicians can focus on what they were trained to do and want to do (i.e., see patients) the more attractive the practice will be. In an era of high physician turnover, it is essential that physicians are comfortable with the day-in and day-out conditions in which they practice and therefore are not seeking other options where they perceive that “the grass is greener.” 8. Agree on candidate parameters Healthcare facility leaders should know on the front end the type of physician they are looking for in terms of professional background and personal characteristics and put these characteristics in writing. They should consider all candidates who meet the required parameters without respect to gender, age, race or country of origin. The right candidate is one who is qualified and wants to join the practice. Once a candidate is sourced who meets these written specifications an offer should be made once the vetting process is cleared. By agreeing on candidate parameters on the front end, delays and “comparison shopping” can be avoided that often can derail the search process, frustrating both candidates and the recruiting facility. 9. Cast a wide net Once the steps outlined above have been taken, and the practice opportunity has been set up for recruiting success, the facility can then proceed to actively seeking candidates. Facilities need to cast the widest net possible, posting on physician job sites, networking with residency programs, advertising in journals, using direct mail and contracting with physician search firms to identify candidates and guide the search process when appropriate. The facility also should include a recruiting page on its web site, with video testimonials from staff physicians extolling the amenities of the practice and community.

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13 Keys To Effective Physician Recruiting

10. Screen candidates effectively The process of screening candidates should be a rigorous one, in which all details regarding practice hours, duties, governance, culture and the community are reviewed. The candidate’s spouse should be involved in these initial discussions, which typically will require multiple hours of phone time. The goal is to provide candidates with all the information they need in order to make a decision after the first interview - and to avoid the misperceptions and mistaken expectations that can lead to physician turnover. 11. Make the interview social as well as professional When candidate screening has been properly conducted, the interview becomes a forum for confirmation of details, not for explanation. Rather than devoting excessive time to fact-finding, the interview allows the facility and the candidate to determine if they are both philosophically and personally compatible. The interview therefore should include social engagements such as dinners to help determine if the candidate and practice leaders are likely to mesh. Ideally, the candidate will walk through the practice and hospital and have an opportunity to meet administrators, fellow physicians, chief nursing officers and others who will impact his or her practice, and to visualize themselves working in the facility and with their future colleagues. It is vital to involve the spouse in the interview process, often through a separate itinerary which will include real estate tours and visits to local schools. During the pandemic, interviews often were held through video, and much can be accomplished by this method. Moving forward, it is likely that virtual contact through Zoom and other channels will continue to be used for candidate interviews as healthcare facilities and candidates both appreciate the time efficiency and travel cost savings.

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13 Keys To Effective Physician Recruiting

12. Be responsive Throughout the recruiting process, and particularly after the interview, it is important to respond quickly to candidate requests for information and to accommodate candidate schedules. Most candidates will be considering multiple opportunities. Often, their decision will come down to a subjective feeling regarding how responsive, engaged and welcoming the practice was. Once an offer is made, the practice should be transparent about its desire to have the candidate come aboard and respond quickly to candidate requests for further information or follow-up. 13. Recruit to retain The recruiting process should not end even after the candidate has joined the practice. The same elements that attract candidates to a practice, such as responsive leadership, a clear strategic vision, competitive and fair remuneration and favorable working conditions, also help keep them there. Do not let the “honeymoon” period expire – continue to treat physicians like the valuable resource that they are.

For additional information about AMN Healthcare Physician Solutions’ thought leadership resource and services, contact:

physiciansolutions@amnhealthcare.com

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