The healthcare industry continues to grapple with the challenge of physician shortages, placing medical practices under significant pressure to attract and retain skilled clinicians. Liz Mahan, Director of Professional Development and Solutions at the Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment (AAPPR), provides insights into the current state of hiring and retention in healthcare. Drawing from AAPPR’s 2024 Benchmarking Report, she explores key findings and strategies to address these ongoing challenges.
Mahan says that medical practices should adopt a more strategic and proactive approach to recruitment and retention, encouraging organizations to move away from a reactive mindset and instead focus on developing comprehensive medical staff development plans. "We need to be aware of the providers who are at, approaching or even beyond retirement age,” she highlights. “We need to be very honest that these people are going to scale back or are going to leave the profession, and that we will need to fill that need within our community."
Adapting to the Evolving Needs of Younger Providers
Another key trend highlighted in the benchmarking report is the shifting priorities of the newer generations of physicians and providers entering the workforce. "They're looking for more flexibility in their scheduling … a better work-life balance," Mahan explains. "They're really holding the feet to the fire in terms of making sure that that happens, and they're being really selective in their job searches."
To attract and retain these younger healthcare professionals, Mahan encourages providers to understand and align with these values and preferences. "We need to be making our best and final offers up front,” she says. “We need to be very honest and realistic with the providers that we're talking to and hoping to welcome into our organizations in terms of what they can expect and what that day-to-day is like."
Leveraging Branding and Influence in Recruitment
As the recruitment landscape evolves, Mahan suggests that successful strategies will require a more creative approach. "Recruitment is becoming a lot about influence. It's becoming a lot about branding," she explains. "We have to be mini marketers and mini influencers in order to get the attention of the medical staff that we're hoping to recruit."
This shift towards branding and influence means medical practices must clearly define their organizational culture and community identity to attract the right candidates. Mahan stresses that organizations should understand and communicate their mission and vision while attracting candidates who subscribe to the same values.
Supporting Recruitment Professionals
The benchmarking report also sheds light on the challenges faced by recruitment professionals themselves, with a turnover rate of around 20% in 2023. Mahan’s suggests investing in and supporting these critical team members. "Whenever you have to replace somebody on the recruitment team, it really is kind of starting from scratch,” she emphasizes. “They need to get to know the practices and the organization and kind of the day-to-day, and it really does slow down the process."
To address this issue, Mahan encourages medical practices to prioritize the well-being and professional development of their recruitment teams. "This is, sort of, my plea for organizations,” she stresses.
Proactive Planning for the Future
Looking ahead to 2025 and beyond, Mahan emphasizes the importance of proactive planning and adaptability for addressing future challenges. She explains, "We need to be ready to move once we get a candidate. As I say, this goes back to being proactive instead of reactive. Once we have a physician who's interested in the opportunity, we need to be ready to move them through that process, and that really means having all the pieces in place."
By staying attuned to the evolving needs of both healthcare providers and their communities, medical practices can position themselves for success in the years to come. Mahan emphasizes, "Thinking beyond just the hard skills that a candidate may have … and really paying attention to some of those softer skills, their interests, their hobbies, and whether what they're looking for and what they bring to the table aligns with what you need and what your organization's able to offer them."
Five key findings from the 2024 AAPPR Benchmarking Report:
- Increased Active Searches: The median number of active searches per organization grew to 115 in 2023, up from 110 in 2022, reflecting heightened recruitment efforts across the healthcare sector.
- Provider Turnover Trends: Provider turnover rates decreased in 2023 after years of gradual increases, with advanced practice providers (APPs) showing higher turnover rates than physicians.
- Demand for Primary Care: Family medicine, internal medicine, OB/GYN, and hospital medicine were the most in-demand specialties, comprising over a quarter of all searches conducted.
- Urban Recruitment Focus: Two-thirds of recruitment efforts targeted providers in urban areas, while nearly one-third focused on suburban locations.
- Search Duration and Challenges: By the end of 2023, 47% of physician searches and 32% of APP searches remained unfilled, highlighting ongoing challenges in meeting recruitment goals despite fewer searches being canceled or paused compared to previous years.
Resources:
- Visit the AAPPR website to connect with and learn from physician and provider recruitment leaders.
- Purchase AAPPR's 2024 Benchmarking Report to unlock comprehensive insights that can help give your organization a competitive recruiting advantage.
- Connect with Liz Mahan on LinkedIn
