Do Healthcare Employers and Recruiters Overlook Qualified Physician Candidates?

Do Healthcare Employers and Recruiters Overlook Qualified Physician Candidates? »

DALLAS, Dec. 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Physician employers and recruiters may overlook many qualified physician candidates, despite a looming physician shortage, according to a recent survey by The Medicus Firm, a national physician search firm.

The potential physician shortage is of such concern that the Federal government recently announced $1 billion for the Health Care Innovation Challenge, which grants funding to organizations providing viable proposals to increase and accelerate the training and deployment of more healthcare workers, including physicians. Meanwhile, some employers may be inadvertently passing over valuable physician talent.

The survey examines physician recruiting processes from the candidates’ perspective, and found that each candidate’s experience of the search process varies greatly based on his or her level of experience, and even gender or training.

Do Employers Devalue Experienced Physicians?

One of the largest discrepancies was reported by candidates who are 16 or more years out of training, as compared to respondents who are within 15 years of completing training.

28.6% of candidates with 16 or more years of experience report a ZERO response rate on applications to hospitals and direct employers. Meanwhile, only 8.2% of candidates within 1-15 years of completing their training report a zero response rate from hospitals

Additionally, the average number of offers received (in the past two years) from younger candidates (within 15 years of completing training) is about 7.88, while older candidates have received only about 2.12 offers over the same time period. This is despite the fact that the two groups report applying for approximately the same number of jobs (about 8) in the past two years.

International Medical Graduates vs. American Medical Graduates

Response rates varied widely for AMG vs. IMG candidates, especially when applying directly to employers. For example, 62% of AMG respondents reported a response rate of above 50% over the past two years, whereas only 43% of IMG respondents reported a response rate of above 50% from employers.

Female vs. Male Respondents

Women reported longer response times to job applications than men. When applying directly to employers, 58% of female physician candidates report receiving a reply within a week, while 68% of men report the same.

Response times were a strength for search firms. 66% of respondents report receiving a response from employers within a week. 78% of respondents received a response from third party firms within that same time frame of one week or less.

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By Tim Spagnola