Report Finds Physician Shortage on the Rise as Burnout Continues to Drive Turnover

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Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment

Oct 18, 2022, 09:00 ET

AAPPR Benchmarking Report Provides Industry Data from Internal Physician and Provider Recruitment Professionals

OKEMOS, Mich., Oct. 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment (AAPPR) has released its annual Physician and Provider Recruitment Benchmarking Study, highlighting the continuing physician shortage in the United States and the impact on recruitment and retention at every level of the healthcare industry. The report found organizations are searching for more physicians than ever before and amid one of the largest shortages.

The report, which provides industry data to help in-house recruitment professionals in workforce planning and growth management, found that 48 percent of all physician searches in 2021 were to replace departing physicians. Data also shows that 33 percent of physicians cited burnout as the reason for leaving their organization.

"These two data points surrounding burnout and departing physicians illustrate a challenging industry cycle," said Carey Goryl, CEO of AAPPR. "Physicians depart, whether to alleviate feelings of burnout or for greater compensation and recruitment teams may be in a perpetual search for a replacement. Every day a provider position remains open, is lost patient care and revenue. Although time to fill has decreased for some specialties, it can still take recruitment and onboarding teams nearly a year to fill an open position and complete the required credentialing process for the new physician, adding stress for remaining physicians and continuing the cycle of burnout."

After a physician candidate signs, they must complete three or more months of credentialling before actually starting in their new position. This means organizations can suffer from a lack of staff for up to a year while recruiters work to fill a single open position, increasing the risk of turnover. AAPPR is seeing a growing number of health care organizations rely on PAs and NPs because there are more candidates, and credentialing is faster.

More than 175 AAPPR member organizations participated in the extensive annual research study representing more than 23,000 searches, more than half specific to physicians.

Other notable report findings include:

Organizations increased their physician and advanced practice provider searches in 2021 and, as a result, grew their internal recruitment department size.
As demand for physicians remains high, the percentage of searches filled during 2021 decreased for a fourth straight year.
As in past years, primary care specialties of family medicine, internal medicine, and hospital medicine physicians are the most sought-after specialties, making them among the most competitive positions to fill.
Physician positions least likely to be filled in 2021 included Otorhinolaryngology, Dermatology and Urology.
Nearly half of all physician searches in 2021 were to replace a departing physician. This rate has been steadily increasing and has climbed 16 percentage points since 2018.
The percentage of provider searches still open at year-end vaulted in 2021, reaching 47% for physicians and 32% for APPs.
For the fourth straight year, departments have tried to manage their costs by decreasing their budgets. Departments relied more on their internal recruitment team as a result.
Advanced practice provider turnover increased to a six-year high 10 percent in 2021.

Establishing target productivity levels, setting goals and expectations, and growing a team can be difficult for recruitment professionals and departments without data. Organizations that participate in the annual benchmarking survey gain free access to AAPPR's benchmarking portal where they can run custom benchmark comparisons including comparative organizational profiles, search information, recruiter profile data, recruiter compensation figures, and time to fill and compensation calculators, helping them make more informed decisions.

The complete 2022 AAPPR Internal Physician and Provider Recruitment Benchmarking Report is available to organizations for sale online. To order, visit https://aappr.org/research/benchmarking/.

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.

SOURCE Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment