New Survey Shows Physicians Moving to Hospital Employment

The older I get, the more things there are that date me, including television shows.

I still think of James Brolin, who played the hot-headed Dr. Kiley on the old “Marcus Welby, M.D.” TV drama, as a dashing young physician. While Mr. Brolin may still be dashing, the reality is he is no longer young. In fact, it is his son, Josh Brolin, who is getting the young man’s parts these days, in movies such as “True Grit” and “No Country for Old Men.”

Pro Bono Recruiting Effort Will Bring Doctor to a Small Town

Lawyers, doctors and other professionals have the opportunity to offer their services on a pro bono basis in aid of the public good. Why not recruiters?

That’s a question we asked ourselves recently when trying to establish a public service campaign that would suit the talents and resources of our companies. Since we specialize in physician recruiting, we decided it would make sense to find a physician for a small town that needs one, waiving our professional fees.

In Physician Recruiting, All Hands Are Needed on Deck

Of all the questions facing the nation’s healthcare system, this one remains the most critical. After all, without physicians, no model of healthcare delivery, no matter how well conceived, will accommodate the needs of America’s growing and aging population. Despite the growing number and expertise of other health care professionals, it is still physicians who diagnose illness, admit patients to the hospital, order tests, perform procedures, and discharge the patient.

The End of Private Practice

This is one finding of a new report which should be of interest to anyone who recruits physicians, or, for that matter, to anyone who is likely to see a physician (which means just about everybody). The report, which is entitled Health Reform and the Decline of Physician Private Practice, was completed by Merritt Hawkins on behalf of The Physicians Foundation – a national not-for-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the work of practicing physicians and the quality of patient care. Many private physicians unable or unwilling to become a part of larger organizations are seeking alternatives. The survey suggests, and the report’s panel members agreed, the traditional model of private practice, in which a physician owns his or her own shop, works a full week, and sees all comers, is no longer tenable. Both market forces and the new healthcare reform bill are pushing doctors to consolidate into larger groups, to align with hospitals, or to become hospital employees. New payment systems, which reward doctors for both quality and efficiency, not just for volume of services performed, require data systems which private doctors often cannot afford or maintain. Private practice physicians also are faced with a growing amount of regulatory compliance responsibilities and with declining reimbursement, making private practice increasingly difficult to sustain.

A Sign of the Times – Demand for Psychiatrists Growing

It is a fact of life when the economy goes down, mental health problems tend to go up. However; there is more to the rising demand for psychiatrists than the recession. A combination of factors is driving a psychiatrist shortage which could soon reach crisis levels.

Recruiters Get Ready…Here Comes Health Reform

While reform is likely to significantly increase demand for health services, it will not have a particularly significant impact on the supply of clinical professionals. The new law acknowledges the shortage of health care professionals and takes some steps to address it. For example, the law calls for redistribution of a number of physician residency training slots that are not being used to training facilities where they will be used. Currently, there are 121,000 medical residency positions available at teaching facilities throughout the U.S, but only 109,000 are being used. Only a limited number of teaching facilities, however, have the funds and infrastructure needed to absorb redistributed slots. It is projected that redistribution of residency positions will only lead to several hundred more physicians coming out of training each year, when most experts agree that several thousand are needed to address current and projected shortages.

New Survey Shows Value of Physician Recruiters

Though healthcare delivery has changed dramatically in many ways – especially in recent years, one fundamental paradigm has remained the same – physicians still refer patients to hospitals and they are still the key drivers of both patient care and revenue throughout the health system. Indeed, the most powerful tool in healthcare remains the physician’s pen. Hospital patient admissions and discharges, tests, treatments, procedures – all require a physician’s signature.

Survey of Hospital CEOs Shows Recruiting Trends

AMN’s 2009 Survey of Hospital CEOs reveals that while the recession inhibited the recruiting efforts of some hospitals, it actually spurred recruiting efforts at others. Hospital leaders were asked how the recession had affected their recruiting efforts for physicians, nurses, allied healthcare professionals and pharmacists. A significant number (24%) said that they had decreased their nurse recruiting efforts because of the recession, though 12% said the recession caused them to increase their nurse recruiting efforts. Interestingly, about 25% of CEOs said the recession caused them to increase physician recruiting, while only 8% said the recession caused them to decrease physician recruiting. These numbers may be explained by the fact that one physician, on average, generates $1.5 million per year on behalf of his or her affiliated hospital through patient admissions and procedures, according to a Merritt Hawkins’ survey. In bad times or in good, many hospitals are motivated to recruit the doctors they need to keep patient admissions and procedures flowing.

Selecting An Immigration Attorney

To anyone reading this who has a child, nephew, niece, friend or acquaintance contemplating a legal career I have a suggestion: consider immigration law. Why immigration over other areas of legal practice? Recruiters familiar with international employment trends can no doubt supply one answer.

15.1 Million Now Unemployed in the U.S.

As America continues to reel from the effects of the worst recession since the 1930s, the unemployment rate for September registered at 9.8%, with a loss of 263,000 jobs. Furthermore, many saw a reduction in the average workweek as well as overtime decreasing in many industries, reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). And while [...]