Primary care remains in high demand among physician recruiters

Primary care continues to be a hot job category for healthcare providers, judging by the latest survey from a physician recruiting organization.

Family medicine, internal medicine, general pediatrics, and emergency medicine were among the specialties that saw the greatest number of job searches in 2013, according to the in-house physician recruitment benchmarking report published by the Association of Staff Physician Recruiters.

About 70% of the approximately 5,000 member searches ASPR examined were for a family medicine provider, according to the report. While 71% of nurse practitioner and 50% of physician assistant searches were for primary care, compared with 38% and 43%, respectively, in 2012.  

The typical organization participating in the survey conducted 26 searches in 2013 and employed two in-house physician recruiters. “Both of these statistics appear to signal a significant increase in physician recruiting, given that in 2012 the median organization performed just 20 searches and employed one in-house physician recruiter,” the report states.

About 69% of the reported searches were conducted for practices owned by hospitals or integrated delivery systems, while 11% were by physician-owned practices. About 8% of active searches used Locum Tenens.