The Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment (AAPPR), whose 2,000 members are the leading authorities on physician and provider recruitment and retention, recently completed a technology research study. It reveals that investments in technology to support physician and provider recruitment in the health care sector lags behind other technology investments by hospitals and health systems. Physician and provider recruitment already experiences challenges with numerous issues, including a decrease in physicians, and the lack of technology adds to these challenges.
“The United States physician shortage is on the rise, impacting recruitment, and retention at every level,” said Carey Goryl, AAPPR’s Chief Executive Officer. “From specialists to family medicine practitioners, recruiting and hiring physicians continues to be a challenge facing health care systems and physician practices. Yet the industry trend towards improved adoption of technology for patient care has not found its way to provider recruitment.”
Key findings from the just-released 2019 AAPPR Physician Recruitment Technology Utilization and Satisfaction Study:
- Only 44% of those organizations reporting cited a significant technology investment (defined as greater than $10,000) over the last twelve months to assist with daily recruitment processes
- 17.5 % reported their organization had never invested in technology of this kind
- The primary method recruitment professionals cited to track and manage search activity, and candidates is an Excel spreadsheet (36.8%)
- Only 8% report using social media management software, though nearly all systems rely on social media for sourcing
Health systems that use commercial software solutions and those who use “home-grown” solutions are nearly equally dissatisfied. Numbers show that of those systems using commercial solutions, 28% are dissatisfied; those using “home-grown” solutions are 36% dissatisfied. According to recruitment leaders, this statistic illustrated that even organizations that have invested in applicant tracking software are not providing the provider recruitment teams platforms that support their work.
“The physician and provider shortages continue to impact the speed at which healthcare organizations can replace or grow their physician workforce,” said Emerson Moses, AAPPR Board President-Elect. “It’s distressing to see that technology investments to support the very specific and niche needs of the physician and provider recruitment process are not keeping pace with advancements that would give their organizations a competitive edge.”
The Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment (AAPPR) is a professional organization comprised of 2,000 members focused solely on advancing in-house physician and provider recruitment professionals. AAPPR is the leading authority on physician/provider recruitment and retention.
The complete 2019 AAPPR Physician Recruitment Technology Utilization and Satisfaction Study Report is available at aappr.org/research/surveys-reports/
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