As healthcare recruiters search for innovative ways to contact physicians for job opportunities in an intense recruiting market, more physicians may be receptive to receiving text messages from recruiters, according to a poll conducted by PracticeMatch, which provides a physician database to hospital recruiters.
"According to our market research, about 80 percent of physicians reported having received up to 30 contacts from recruiters about practice opportunities in the past 90 days, but only about 15 percent reported receiving a text message about opportunities," said Mike York, CEO of PracticeMatch.
In a survey of 1,730 physicians conducted in February, the majority (80 percent) of physicians said they would be receptive to receiving text messages from a recruiter.
Additionally, a number of survey respondents said they consider texting to be "more convenient" and "more personal" than email, direct mail or phone calls.
PracticeMatch created a texting program for in-house recruiters.The service, called TextMatch, allows recruiters to focus on a specific candidate audience and send direct messages to them about practice opportunities. The service also allows recruiters to access more than 100,000 verified physician mobile numbers and 5,000 advanced practitioners.