The physician recruitment market continues to be challenging, with specialties like urology, ob/gyn and psychiatry being particularly difficult. Because groups and health centers are actively recruiting to fill these types of searches, I encourage all of you to continue to focus on the retention of your current medical staff/team. Remember, your medical staff is the target of communities actively seeking those specialties.
In those hard-to-find specialties, your physicians and providers are being bombarded by opportunities every day. I spoke with a urologist yesterday who told me he receives 10 job solicitations daily which I am sure is not uncommon. Additionally, if you are actively recruiting for a specialty, then your current physicians are likely being stressed by additional call in the absence of a physician. Before losing one of your physicians, take steps to ensure better retention of your medical staff.
Retention has never been more important for physician groups and medical staffs due to this environment. Here are some things I have learned over the years regarding retention:
- Physicians are most vulnerable to departing your community in the first two years. After two years, physicians and their spouses (and their kids) have established roots in the community and are much more likely to remain in your community through the everyday ups and downs of the practice of medicine. Therefore, the focus on retention needs to start from day 1 the physician is in your community and really before they ever arrive.
- When devising compensation, try to keep this two-year window in mind. The sooner physicians are maximizing their compensation, the more likely they are to settle in.
- Empathy is critical to identifying physicians who are susceptible to leaving your community. When we talk to physicians who are relocating, it is often brought on by some form of change. When change occurs, identify those vulnerable physicians, and have a talk with them.
- Retention bonuses are a good way to have physicians remain to earn/receive bonuses after the end of year 1 and 2.
- The average age of physicians has never been higher with physicians actively working in their 50s and 60s. Physicians of this age group are often empty nesters and therefore are not susceptible to some of the children issues that cause physicians to relocate like quality of schools. Broaden your target market to include these physicians when recruiting.
- Physicians relocate for personal as well as professional reasons, maybe more for personal reasons. The personal component means the entire family including spouse and children. It is often easier for the physician to settle into your community because they have a work family from Day 1 but with so many people working remotely, the spouse may be working from home without a social network. Look for ways to get the spouse and children involved in the community. Many organizations have groups in place to help spouses transition to a community and this can be a great resource if you don’t already have this in place.
I hope these points are helpful to you and we are always available to discuss in detail your current situation.
