Physician recruitment survey shows impact of onboarding and retention programs

The Association of Staff Physician Recruiters (ASPR), the leading authority on physician recruitment, onboarding, and retention, today announced the results of its 2017 In-House Physician Recruitment Benchmarking Report. Among the key findings were physician turnover, at 7.3 percent, remained consistent with recent years. And non-physician turnover, at 8.1%, showed a decrease compared to the 9.8% reported for the last two years, aligning with increased emphasis on onboarding and retention programs.

“We are excited to launch this year’s results. Our participation was very strong, reflecting data that was submitted on nearly 7,000 searches that occurred in 2016,” said Frank Gallagher, President of ASPR. “Increased efforts on recruitment and retention seem to be paying off, with our respondent data showing that more than half have provider onboarding responsibilities, and 36% have provider retention responsibilities.”

Among the additional key findings for in-house physician recruitment departments in the survey are:

• Specialties remain the most difficult positions to fill. Specialties that were least likely to be filled were: Rheumatology (33%); Ophthalmology (35%); Dermatology (36%); Endocrinology/Metabolism (39%) and Radiation Oncology (39%).

• Recruiters are working more. Respondents employed a median of two in‐house physician recruitment professionals (four on average), which has held fairly constant. This continues to help explain the increases in the typical recruiter’s workload over the past several years. The number of annual active searches per recruiter has increased 53% in the past five years.
• Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants are in high demand. The top five overall searches conducted were Nurse Practitioner (13%), Physician Assistant (9%), Family Medicine (9%), Pediatrics (7%), and Hospital Medicine (7%).

“Many factors play into the complexity of the physician recruiting cycle,” Gallagher said. “The US health care system is in a constant state of flux, a projected physician shortage, demand-side factors such as serving the newly insured and an aging population, complex compensation packages, and increased competition among those who employ physicians trying to create a workforce for the future.”

ASPR is comprised of more than 1,700 in‐house physician recruitment professionals employed directly by hospitals, clinics, physician practices, academic medical centers, and managed care organizations from across the United States and Canada. ASPR has conducted the In-House Physician Recruitment Benchmarking Report since 2011 to provide a detailed analysis of the industry with key statistics on provider recruitment searches conducted by in‐house physician recruiters during the most recent calendar year. A total of 144 organizations participated providing data for 490 inhouse physician recruiters and 6,661 active searches.

The full Report and Searchable Results are available for purchase at the ASPR official website. The Association of Staff Physician Recruiters (ASPR) is a professional organization solely for inhouse physician recruitment professionals. ASPR works to empower industry experts through education, research, and engagement in order to promote integrity, professionalism, collegiality and innovative thinking. Founded in 1990, ASPR is the nation’s recognized leader in physician recruitment, onboarding, and retention.

Learn more about the Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment at www.aappr.org.

For more information, contact Carey Goryl, CEO | 800.830.2777 | cgoryl@aappr.org