Survey of Hospital CEOs Shows Recruiting Trends
Kurt Mosley, VP of Business Development, The MHA Group
When asked recently to come up with an adjective to describe the year 2009, the most positive word I could think of was “interesting.”
One of the “interesting” things those of us in healthcare recruiting learned last year is that while the healthcare industry may be “recession-resistant” it certainly is not “recession-proof.” Many people lost their health insurance last year and choose not to seek medical attention they could not afford. Others who were insured felt the financial pinch and passed on seeing a doctor in order to avoid co-pays and deductibles. Still others decided to forego such elective procedures as botox and bariatric surgery – procedures that kept quite a few healthcare professionals busy during more robust economic times. The result was an overall dip in the utilization of healthcare services and a corresponding decline in demand for healthcare professionals. The fact that many healthcare professionals (nurses in particular) who had left the clinical field returned to clinical roles during the recession contributed to a less than dynamic market for recruiters.
AMN Healthcare, which is Merritt Hawkins & Associates’ parent company, was curious about exactly how the recession affected the recruitment of physicians, nurses, allied professionals and pharmacists at the nation’s hospitals and conducted a survey of hospital chief executive officers to find out.
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.
While the survey shows that the recession did slow down recruiting efforts at some hospitals, the majority of CEOs said that the recession did not cause them to alter their physician, nurse, allied health professional or pharmacist recruiting plans.
The even better news is that many hospital CEOs said they plan to maintain or increase their recruiting efforts over the next six months. Over 92% of CEOs said they will either maintain or increase their physician recruiting efforts over the next six months; 84% said they will maintain or increase their allied health professional recruiting efforts; 90% said they will maintain or increase their pharmacist recruiting efforts, and 76% said they will maintain or increase their nurse recruiting efforts.
Though the shortage of clinical healthcare professionals has eased during the recession, many CEOs surveyed by AMN believe shortages are still a significant challenge. Over 53% of CEOs said there is a serious shortage of physicians; 40% said there is a serious shortage of pharmacists, 38% said there is a serious shortage of nurses, and 19% said there is a serious shortage of allied healthcare professionals.
Healthcare reform remains the x factor. The majority of CEOs (70%) said that their service areas would not have enough physicians to meet demand if health care reform leads to universal access to medical coverage, and many others said their areas would not have enough nurses, allied professionals or pharmacists should healthcare access be expanded. The survey includes various other data points and I will be happy to send RecruitingTrends readers a copy of the complete results (please email me at kurt.mosley@amnhealthcare.com).
While it is too early to say what 2010 has in store for healthcare and other recruiters, let’s all hope that this year is a little less “interesting” than last.
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Kurt Mosley is Vice President of Strategic Alliances for Merritt Hawkins & Associates, a national physician recruiting firm, and for its parent company, AMN Healthcare. He can be reached at kurt.mosley@amnhealthcare.com
Posted by Kurt Mosley
on February 8, 2010. Filed under Healthcare, Thought Leadership.
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I agree that there has been a shift away from preventive services, routine visits etc. Being a self insured employer, we have watched this first hand by simply monitoring our billing. Although we diligently promote wellness and prevention employees and their families are strapped for cash to pay for co-pays, office visits, etc. It is important that employees although impacted by lower total dollars earned should take care of themselves by being seen on a regular basis. It will be an interesting year in many dimensions, most importantly as a country we need jobs, and we need jobs quickly, without them, we cannot return to a healthy economy, let alone a healthy population of citizens.