Physician Shortages Impede Hospitals’ Service Line Development

“As physician recruiters we’ve got a real challenge,” Pinnacle COO Michael P. Broxterman tells Becker’s Hospital Review.

Seeking to put a hard number on anecdotal concerns from his recruiters, Mr. Broxterman recently calculated physician supply for major specialties and found that 11 specialties are in shortage.

Here is the list:

To calculate the amount of shortage in each specialty, Mr. Broxterman says he took the number of advertised opportunities and subtracted the number of available specialists from it. The latter figure is combination of the number of graduating residents and the number of physicians who would be relocating.

The number of advertised opportunities comes from Physicianwork.com, one of the major “job boards” that post openings for physician jobs. The number of graduating residents comes from the AMA. Mr. Broxterman calculated the number of relocating doctors at 7 percent of the total number of specialists, a percentage based on the MGMA’s estimate that 6-9 percent of doctors relocate each year.

The shortages calculated by Mr. Boxterman are problematic because they suggest that some of the most profitable service lines are most at risk for physician shortages. As a result, it is more important than ever hospitals develop strategies to retain and attract physicians for these critical service lines.

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