Physician recruitment statistics reflect increasing demand for primary care

The humble primary care services are hot at healthcare organization leaders find that in a post-Affordable Care Act era, future market share hinges on having strong preventive and general care capabilities. The results of the 2014 Association of Staff Physician Recruiters member survey reflect this trend strongly.

Survey answers from 427 in-house physician recruiters at a total of 145 organizations reveal that physician recruiting overall is up. Last year, the typical responding organization performed 26 active searches, up from just 20 searches performed on average in 2012. In addition, the typical organization now employs two in-house physician recruiters as opposed to just one in 2012.

Nearly 70 percent of responding organizations searched for a Family Medicine provider. The other most searched for specialties in 2013 were Hospital Medicine, Internal Medicine, General Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine. In addition 71 percent of Nurse Practitioner searches and 50 percent of Physician Assistant searches were specifically for primary care.

Healthcare organizations are also spending more on recruitment, perhaps reflecting a race between organizations to lock up the most primary care talent. The typical organization reported an annual recruitment budget of $321,000 in 2013, up from $245,000 in 2012. Those that were recruiting heavily, meaning they had 50 or more searches, spend well over half a million on recruitment.

The full report and searchable data is available through the ASPR website at www.aspr.org/benchmarking. The annual ASPR Benchmarking Survey is web-based and is open each year from January 1 through March 31, with results typically released in late summer.