Have a question?
Contact us
Make Your Voice Heard: By taking part in our survey, you help shape the future and drive meaningful change.
The Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment (AAPPR) is redefining recruitment to retention and is the only professional organization where physician and provider recruitment leaders and others who influence recruitment, onboarding and retention can connect, learn and advance their careers.
A recent focus group conducted by the Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment (AAPPR) uncovered troubling themes of operational and physician candidate pipeline challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and exacerbated by weary recruitment leaders and departments met with decreasing funds and limited resources. Findings from the focus group, made up of the nation’s leading physician and provider recruitment experts, are now available in AAPPR’s newly released white paper entitled: From Healthcare’s Front Lines: Industry Experts Sound Alarm on Concerning Physician Recruitment Trends in Coming Months.
The industry white paper indicates significant changes will be required to help address an already depleted and decreasing physician workforce. Industry experts suggest the research findings should serve as an imperative directive to healthcare operational leaders to maintain up-to-date recruitment market intelligence to quickly and successfully pivot both short- and long-term workforce strategies.
“The insights we received in the focus group on trends in physician recruitment in the wake of COVID-19, help shine a light on both new challenges and even some unexpected benefits,” said co-author and AAPPR CEO Carey Goryl, MSW, CAE. “It is our hope that this document may serve as a foothold to better understanding future physician recruitment cycles as competing organizations expand efforts to help stabilize an uncertain physician supply and demand market.”
Specific topics covered in the AAPPR white paper include:
“The physician recruitment industry is facing what’s being called, ‘The Great Resignation’ as an increasing number of physicians opt for early retirement citing increasing burnout and an unhealthy work/life balance and the consequences across healthcare will be significant,” said co-author and AAPPR President Emerson R. Moses, MBA, CPRP. “Today’s healthcare organization leaders need to be vigilant in reviewing and revising their onboarding and retention plans to offset continued unanticipated turnover.”
In the latest Physician and Provider Job Satisfaction and Search Report published by AAPPR, a reported 30% of physicians will retire between the ages of 60 to 65. With over one in three respondents from the report considering early retirement because of physician burnout, recruitment leaders are auditing their practices’ physician age demographics and sounding alarming fears of tenured physicians at their organizations expressing exhaustion and frustration. The national focus group also concurred with an earlier survey report that of over half of physician respondents in the market survey (56.72%) are considering or have considered changing employers.
For a copy or a more comprehensive review of the white paper, From Healthcare’s Front Lines: Industry Experts Sound Alarm on Concerning Physician Recruitment Trends in Coming Months visit: https://aappr.org/aappr-white-papers/
The Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment (AAPPR) is a nationally recognized leader in health care provider recruitment, onboarding, and retention. For more than 30 years, AAPPR has empowered physician and advanced practice provider recruitment leaders to transform care delivery in their communities by providing best-in-class practices, up-to-date industry knowledge, and evolving innovative approaches for hiring, onboarding, and retaining exceptional clinical talent.
To learn more or to become an organizational member of AAPPR, please visit https://aappr.org/join-now
A recent national study of physician vacancies reports health care organizations nationwide are facing increased challenges and competition for physician talent. The Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment — a leading authority in the physician and provider recruitment to retention continuum – reports a 40% increase as compared to the same study the year prior. Days needed to fill positions also rose, but only by an average of 8% across NPs, PAs and Primary, Specialty and Surgical Physicians. The modest increase was unexpected given 44% of all searches were put on hold at the nation’s largest health systems due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
More than 150 national health care organizations and systems participated in the comprehensive annual research study representing more than 17,000 searches, almost two-thirds specific to physician searches. Additional findings from the just-released Physician and Provider Recruitment Benchmarking Report include:
“We fully anticipate physician shortage numbers to rise, as the findings in this report reflect just the tip of the COVID iceberg,” said Emerson R. Moses, AAPPR President. “The industry was trending towards a severe shortage before the pandemic which has only accelerated the desire to retire for some, and a potential loss of employment for a percentage of others who may not comply with the vaccine mandate at federally funded health systems across the US. The field of physician recruitment has never been easy, and it’s about to get a lot harder.”
The pandemic, however, accelerated the evolution of best practices for physician recruitment as organizations embraced technology integration to address stop gaps in the recruitment process. The use of virtual interviewing, electronic signatures, and other technology tools were quickly adopted resulting in increased speed-to-hire and reduction of expenses.
“Conducting research and bringing to light the latest trends in physician and provider recruitment is central to our mission,” said Carey Goryl, CEO of AAPPR. “This latest report speaks to the magnitude of the challenges facing the industry and gives health care organizations insight into how they can better perform in this competitive hiring environment.”
In an effort to help health care organizations predict the time it will take to fill a particular physician specialty search, anyone can access the online Days to Fill Calculator. This online predictive tool provides an estimated range of time that it will likely take to fill a specific physician specialty vacancy, based on circumstances such as the organization’s size, geographic area or desirability of location.
The complete 2021 In-house Physician and Provider Recruitment Benchmarking Report is available to organizations for sale online. To order, please visit https://aappr.org/research/benchmarking/ or email info@aappr.org.
About The Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment (AAPPR)
The Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment (AAPPR) is a nationally recognized leader in health care provider recruitment, onboarding, and retention. For more than 30 years, AAPPR has empowered physician and advanced practice provider recruitment leaders to transform care delivery in their communities by providing best-in-class practices, up-to-date industry knowledge, and evolving innovative approaches for hiring, onboarding, and retaining exceptional clinical talent.
To learn more or to become an organizational member of AAPPR, please visit https://aappr.org/join-now
Purchase 2020 Benchmarking Report
OKEMOS, MI / ACCESSWIRE / October 7, 2020 / According to a recent physician and provider recruitment benchmark study filling Surgery and Primary Care physician positions took less time last year – a five-year low for Primary Care placements. The study, reflecting data just prior to COVID-19, also showed that Health Care organizations continue to grow and seek more physicians. The report comes from the Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment (AAPPR), whose members are the leading authorities in the recruitment to retention continuum.
Nearly 150 AAPPR health organizations participated in the extensive annual research study representing more than 11,000 searches, almost two-thirds specific to physician searches.
Additional findings from the just-released 2020 In-House Physician and Provider Recruitment Benchmarking Report include:
“The time it takes to fill a physician search is a metric tracked by all health organizations and is often the most important data point to healthcare executives. I’m happy to see this number decreasing as it may point to added efficiencies and the leveraging of technology within in-house recruitment teams,” said Emerson Moses, AAPPR Board President-Elect. “It is good to see that organizations continue to add recruitment and talent acquisition staff to their in-house teams, which must almost certainly contributes to increased effectiveness.”
Carey Goryl, CEO of AAPPR stated, “It was a positive sign that so many organizations participated in the study even amid the start of COVID-19 in the U.S. It was important to capture the industry’s data as it was pre- COVID. What we’re seeing and hearing now is that there are more physician candidates in the search pool, especially in rural areas. And from in-house teams to placement firms, many are noting that the time to fill positions is getting even shorter.”
In an effort to help health care organizations predict the time it will take to fill a particular physician specialty search, anyone can access the online Days to Fill Calculator. This online predictive tool provides an estimated range of time that it will likely take to fill a specific physician specialty vacancy based on circumstances such as the organization’s size, geographic area, or desirability of location.
AAPPR also offers a Compensation Calculator that estimates a recruitment professional’s compensation based on factors such as role in the company, years of experience, formal education, organization size, etc. to anyone who purchases the report.
The Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment (AAPPR) is a professional organization comprised of nearly 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 2020 In-house Physician and Provider Recruitment Benchmarking Report is available to organizations for $399. To order, please visit https://aappr.org/research/benchmarking/ or email info@aappr.org.
Purchase 2020 Benchmarking Report
For more information, contact:
CAREY GORYL, CEO
517-318-6314; cgoryl@aappr.org
SOURCE: Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment
The high cost of turnover in health care and the ever-present provider shortage validates the importance of strengthening physician and provider retention strategies in every organization. A study by the University of Virginia Health System determined that physicians were more likely to leave their positions if they felt they were spending too much time in a particular area of their jobs. Stay interviews can be one way to review the right balance of patient care, administration, research, and teaching to make or break a physician/provider’s desire to stay with a specific organization.
Download COVID-19 Impact & Response Infographic
Over three months after the United States began restricting movement to flatten the curve of COVID-19, in-house physician recruitment teams are still innovating and adapting to a new form of recruitment and hiring. AAPPR recently queried of its members through both an online survey and personal interviews to hear directly from them on what had changed in their profession.
The data shows a tale of two roads diverging: those who stopped and those who kept recruiting. The impact of those two differing paths remains to be seen. AAPPR surveyed its members in June of 2020 and conducted qualitative interviews that dove deeper into members’ experiences. Interviews were done with members from large and small organizations and from coast to coast. In every member interaction today, AAPPR hears stories of adaptability and resilience. Some don’t wait to be redeployed; they become leaders and share their transferable expertise. Mentoring has grown, especially with or by those who have been furloughed. This has been a time to be reflective and invest in oneself. The stories our members have shared with us are truly inspiring.
As recruitment professionals, we are keenly aware of our organization’s brand and branding strategy, but have you given the same thought to your brand? What does your professional brand say about you?
Like your organization’s brand, your professional brand establishes who you are and what you value. Your professional brand can not only help you stand out in a competitive job market but can also distinguish you in the workplace.
In this guide, we will look at tips to help you build your professional brand across multiple channels and leverage that brand for maximum results.
In collaboration with our members and the feedback, resources, and insights they have shared through Member Chat, AAPPR has compiled the following suggested tips for virtual interviews.
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:
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/
###
Whatever your neurology recruitment need, you can maximize your chances of success by understanding the neurology recruiting landscape and adapting your practice opportunity to current market trends.
Studies point to an aging population and a limited candidate pool as the reasons for the neurology shortage. A 2013 study published by the AAN found, by looking at the number of neurologists, retirement probability, the number of new graduates, and the number of hours worked, that demand outstripped supply by 11%, and estimated that the demand would outstrip supply by 19% by 2025. Dall, Timothy M et al. “Supply and demand analysis of the current and future US neurology workforce.” Neurology vol. 81,5 (2013). However, this estimate may be a gross underestimate of the shortage because it doesn’t take into account more recent factors increasing the demand for neurology services and constraining supply, including:
1. increased sub-specialization,
2. the evolution of the inpatient/outpatient split practice,
3. the increase in the value candidates place on work-life balance, and
4. the high percentage of candidates requiring visa support.
For patients suffering from neurological problems, the treatment options have dramatically increased in recent years. This increase in therapeutic options has increased the patient demand for subspecialized neurology care, and is accompanied by a sharp increase in sub-specialization among neurologists. Based on the latest data from the American Academy of Neurology, 90% of residents report plans to pursue a fellowship following residency. Neurology residency training in 2017 Mahajan, Abhimanyu et al Neurology Jan 2019, 92 (2) 76-83. The AMA puts this number at 89%, and our own data also show that 88-90% of new graduates go on to do fellowships.
Accompanying this steep trend towards sub-specialization, neurology practices have tended to split inpatient from outpatient responsibilities. In many practices, neurohospitalists have taken the hospital call burden away from the outpatient neurologists. Neurohospitalists usually prefer working 7on/7 off, ideally in 10-12-hour shifts requiring no more than 12-15 patient encounters per day. Conversely, neurologists who are fellowship trained in an outpatient-focused sub-specialty generally prefer jobs that are purely outpatient which will allow them to focus 50% -80% or more on their subspecialty.
To replace a do-it-all neurologist, you may need to hire 2-3 neurologists to replace that one individual. If you do find a general neurologist who is willing and able to do it all, we advise you to enthusiastically incorporate that neurologist into your practice!
While modern healthcare encourages physicians to work as many hours as they will give, candidates often express a desire for work-life balance. Burnout is common, but neurologists who are unhappy with their work hours can easily find new employment with fewer hours. Neurologists seeking to juggle work and family life may seek part-time positions, further constraining supply in a fixed pool of neurologists.
According to our data, over 30% -40% of U.S. neurology trainees in recent years are foreign medical graduates. They have done their residencies in the US which makes them US Board Eligible (or board certified if they have already taken and passed the board exam) but will need some type of visa sponsorship (primarily J-1 or H-1B). These candidates often prefer jobs in locations which offer a community of individuals from similar ethnic and/or religious backgrounds.
1. Adapt your job to the candidate pool: Sub-specialization in neurology is now the rule, and general neurology is the exception. Encourage your administrators to figure out which neurology sub-specialties could be well-supported by your facility and your patient population. While the need for general neurology is often paramount, especially in smaller communities, half of a good neurologist’s time doing general neurology is better than nothing. Advertise for the sub-specialists you can legitimately support, and make 50% general neurology a part of the job. Making your job attractive to sub-specialists who will each do 50% general neurology may be a path to meeting your general neurology need; it will just take more than one hire to replace a retiring neurologist.
2. Use APPs to help meet your general neurology need: Some hospitals are training APPs to run a neurology access clinic (which may have 3-4 APPs supervised by a neurologist) in order to reduce patient wait times. Additionally, NPs and PAs can often relieve much of the burden of the general neurologist by doing pre-screening and follow-ups.
3. Get creative to adapt to candidate’s desires for fully inpatient or fully outpatient work: We have seen a smaller hospital team up with a slightly larger hospital nearby to hire a neurohospitalist who covered both hospitals. Hospitals that do not have the volume or budget to support two 7 on/7 off neurohospitalists may hire one neurohospitalist who works M-F, 9am-5pm.
4. Provide Visa Support: Since 30-40% of new graduates in any given year are foreign medical graduates, if you can provide an H-1B or J-1 visa waiver, you should.
5. Offer Work-Life Balance: While you may want a more-than-full-time neurologist to meet the demands of your practice, a .5% or .8% FTE is better than none! Practices that can proudly advertise part-time positions or limited working hours are at an advantage in this hiring market.
6. Keep Compensation Competitive: There is no room for wishful thinking when it comes to compensation for neurologists. Your most senior neurologists may never have made as much money as it will take to recruit a new neurologist. MGMA 2019 Median reported compensation for neurology (based on 2018 data) was up almost 7% to $323,190. Source: 2019 MGMA DataDive Provider Compensation, based on 2018 data. Used with permission from MGMA, 104 Inverness Terrace East, Englewood, Colorado 80112. 877.275.6462. www.mgma.com. Copyright 2019.
7. In our experience, guaranteed compensation for certain sub-specialties and in less popular locations may need to be significantly more.
8. Rural Communities: If you are in a rural community and desperately need a general neurologist, find every neurologist in private practice within a 90-minute drive from your facility. Offer them a comfy guaranteed salary, no administrative burden and a quality lifestyle.
Sharing these strategies with your key stakeholders can help you win in an incredibly tight neurology hiring market!
Kindly contact RosmanSearch, Inc. at 216-906-8188 or visit their website www.rosmansearch.com.
After attending the AAPPR conference in Orlando last month, and a few of our NP Now representatives were very impressed with Allison Dimsdale’s discussion on the topic, “Transforming Recruitment and Onboarding for Ambulatory APPs ” We were fortunate to be able to have an interview with her in order to further learn from her expertise.
Allison Dimsdale, DNP, NP-C, AACC, FAANP is the Associate Vice President for Advanced Practice for the Private Diagnostic Clinic at Duke University Health System. Her clinical practice is as a Board-Certified Nurse Practitioner in the Department of Medicine-Division of Cardiology, where she specializes in the treatment of heart failure, acute coronary syndromes and primary prevention of coronary heart disease. Her third appointment is as Clinical Associate in the Duke University School of Nursing where she lectures to graduate students in the areas of professional practice and cardiology and serves as content expert on student doctoral committees. She is an Investigator on clinical trials through the Duke Clinical Research Institute and is an active participant in nursing research initiatives through the Duke Translational Nursing Institute focusing on implementation science. She has an interest in creative nursing education and mentorship, as well as the leadership interface between systems of care, provider utilization, access to care and excellent patient outcomes. In her role as Associate Vice President of Advanced Practice at Duke, she is responsible for leading the effort to facilitate Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants to work to their full scope of practice by implementing ambulatory practice redesign with the aim to increase patient access to high quality, safe and cost-effective care.
Allison sustains active memberships in the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, American Nurses Association, and the North Carolina Nurses Association. She is a peer reviewer for Elsevier Publishing, and has been published in several nursing and medical publications including Circulation. She serves on a variety of community task forces and boards and was a Fellow in the 2016 AANP Leadership Program. She holds the Associate of the American College of Cardiology recognition and is a Fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners.
She earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and Master of Science (MSN) degrees from Duke University, and her undergraduate degree from the University of Texas.
I have 21 years of experience as both a critical care Registered Nurse, and then a Nurse Practitioner in Cardiovascular Medicine at a large academic medical center. My doctoral work led me to a leadership role where I found myself designing and establishing best practices to design interprofessional teams to provide specialty care. This in turn, defined the need to create a structure to recruit, hire and retain Nurse Practitioners (NP) and Physician Assistants (PA) in ambulatory specialty practice. I am fortunate to be given abundant support and resources at Duke and was able to share my dream with Donna Ecclestone, FASPR, who quickly joined me to change our institutional culture, and to reframe how we bring Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) into our organization, and subsequently utilize their skills to provide increased patient access to high quality, high value patient care. This was a new concept for us and then led to the need to reframe and redefine our care delivery systems.
As APPs are now being asked to work as independent providers of care, their onboarding has become far more complex and important. As we all know, if a detail is missed around billing, or patient scheduling, or certification/credentialing – it becomes a work stoppage issue and thus a patient care issue. Reframing the way we do things and deploy APPs was the only way to create an Advanced Practice organization that provided professionalism and attention to detail in terms of hiring the right provider for the right position at the right time to take care of the right patient. That’s a mouthful, but it truly does define our goals. When an excellent interprofessional team is formed intentionally, everyone wins and the entire group can look forward to a long and fruitful collaboration in order to deliver the highest quality patient-based care.
The process of creating our Advanced Practice Office (which includes professional APP recruiters, HR and onboarding or integration) is one that we have defined and created along the journey. We saw the need as outlined above to create structure and advocacy for APPs, and to create intentional teams where APPs would be working to the top of their scope. We started with a strategic hire program, where in a small way we brought APPs into a funded subvention program for their first year of practice. These providers were carefully supported through the onboarding process, and gradually other practices around our enterprise started asking for our help in designing new practices as well as the recruiting and onboarding process. In order to meet those needs, our office expanded, and Donna developed tools for onboarding (referenced online checklists). We were able to combine with our Provider Recruitment team, which was important because in our state the nuances of NP and PA practice are unique yet important.
Today, our Advanced Practice Office offers practice consulting, recruiting, hiring, onboarding, practice metrics/data, transition to practice Fellowships, and regulatory oversight for almost 500 ambulatory specialty APPs. We continue to learn and grow and believe that APPs and their MD colleagues and practice administrators are better prepared for practice due to the professionalism, energy and enthusiasm of our office.
It is very important for recruiters to understand the professional landscape for Advanced Practice Providers. Although an NP was first a Registered Nurse, as an NP they are practicing medicine from the nursing perspective. This makes their practice wellness based and generally very holistic. A PA has never been a nurse, and they are trained to do the same work from a biomedical perspective. Once in practice for a few years and depending on the nuances of state laws (which are ever changing), their practices may look very similar. APPs are in high demand all around the country, and they will be attracted to an organization that from day one treats them as a professional. The communication, interviews, and hiring process is best done in a way that mirrors that of their physician colleagues. This will attract highly qualified candidates who can be assured that they will be treated professionally in your organization.
The difference between administrative onboarding and clinical onboarding is important. The introduction to the clinical practice is imperative to develop trust between the physician and the APP, and that trust must be bi-directional. A clinical liaison or access coordinator within the practice can be very helpful in designing a practice model and a patient flow that makes sense for the patient population. For instance, will the APP work alongside the physician and manage their non-direct patient care duties, or will they see patients independently in a proscribed visit flow (either manage their own patient panel, or see patients in combination)? Will they augment the MD work by providing a procedure clinic, acute clinic or rounding services? When these things are left to chance or are not well defined, misunderstandings happen easily, and practices are not well optimized. This may lead to increased turnover and attrition, which is expensive and demoralizing for the practice.
Advanced Practice Providers should always work to the top of their scope, training and licensure. Sometimes the answer to the need to grow a clinic is an excellent nurse rather than an APP who is trained and licensed to assess, diagnose, treat and prescribe. Avoiding competition between MD and APP for RVUs or patients, such as in the case of a productivity incentive, is imperative. The group should function as a team without such distraction or competition – in this way they can provide the highest quality, highest value patient care.
Recruiters should be sure they are posting a specific and relevant position description. APPs are increasingly trained as specialty providers, and don’t want to waste time applying for a position that is ill defined or lacks enough detail to determine a good fit. APPs should be treated and deployed as providers rather than as nurses for both job satisfaction and access to care. A good relationship with their recruiter and onboarder, and then with their clinical team can set the stage for a long and fruitful tenure in an academic medical center.
Interviewed by Dorothy Blalock, Director of Brand Management at NP Now
AAPPR uses cookies for functional and analytical purposes. By continuing to browse or by clicking “Accept,” you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance your site experience. To learn more about how we use cookies or how to change your settings, please see our privacy policy.
Accept Close
