12 Ways to Attract Top Physicians and APPs to Your Facility

A Strategic Approach for Attracting Top Medical Talent

Highly skilled physicians and advanced practice providers add massive value to healthcare organizations – and knowing how to attract them is paramount. When health leaders have a strategy for locating and hiring providers whose goals align with the organization, these healthcare professionals are more likely to remain with the organization and enhance the quality of the facility moving forward.

Turnover is High, and It’s Extremely Costly

Per provider, physician turnover can cost from $250,000 to over $1.0 million (Mayo), and APP turnover can cost $85,000-$115,000 (SullivanCotter). Further, 3 in 10 healthcare professionals were considering leaving the field in 2021 (Post-KFF). A survey of more than 9,200 physicians and 2,100 APPs found nearly 1/3 of these providers intended to cut work hours in the next 12 months (Mayo). That’s why it’s critical – now more than ever – that leaders devote resources to strategically attracting and retaining providers.

Top 12 Tips for Attracting Physicians and APPs

To help combat the heavy cost of turnover and find providers who want to stay for the long run, leaders can examine their organization’s approach to provider recruitment and retention. It may be time to update outmoded processes and implement a new proactive, adaptable strategy to attract, hire, and retain top-quality providers.

Here are 12 tips for attracting top talent:

1. Rely on various channels. Use many different routes to connect with prospects, including job boards, word of mouth, email, multimedia, in-house recruitment, staffing agency, professional organizations, social media, your organization’s website, and more.
2. Invest time in marketing. Ensure your team is crafting enticing job descriptions. Create a position advertisement that appeals to the ideal candidate – one that is transparent regarding job requirements and highlights your differentiators as an organization. Feature position benefits and perks, describe the work culture, and mention the advantages of living in the area.
3. Partner with academic institutions. Collaborate with medical schools to reach skilled new providers. Ideas for incorporating providers into your practice include offering rotations for students, which can serve as a “job interview” for both parties, giving guest lectures for students, and posting jobs on university sites (entnet.org)
4. Maximize autonomy of practice. Allow your providers to have as much independence as possible according to laws. Providers, especially APPs, are drawn to the field for its independence. The more freedom you can offer your providers, the better.
5. Offer professional development opportunities. Draw in physicians and APPs who value professional growth by offering in-house training or covering the cost of continuing education opportunities. Consider granting financial assistance to those who wish to pursue specialties or stipends for providers to attend conferences. Where possible, allow for lateral movements so providers can gain exposure to different specialties, patient populations, clinical environments, and procedures.
6. Highlight upward mobility and leadership opportunities. To attract providers who seek to expand their skills and knowledge base continually and to lead others, feature opportunities for growth. Hoff et al. assert the importance of developing skill sets and roles for clinicians: “upskilling and role expansion…draw from both job enrichment and empowerment theories, and notions of expanded roles bringing enhanced self-efficacy to individual workers” (Sage).
7. Utilize providers effectively. Ensure providers’ time is used well while avoiding overburdening them. SullivanCotter reports that providers “who feel maximally or significantly utilized are 22% less likely to consider leaving the organization in the next 12 months than those perceived to be underutilized,” and those “who feel maximally or significantly utilized are more likely to recommend the organization as a good place to work than those perceived to be underutilized.”
8. Offer opportunities for non-clinical activities. Providers who had opportunities to participate in committees, community outreach, administration, research, and process/quality improvement were 17% less likely to leave (SullivanCotter).
9. Offer as competitive a package as possible. Salary and benefits, including competitive pay, pay increases, bonus opportunities, moving allowance, retirement plan, health insurance, malpractice coverage, travel opportunities, wellness program, vacation days, flexible schedules, etc., can help attract and retain highly qualified providers.
10. Invest in onboarding, training, and ongoing feedback. Develop an onboarding program designed specifically for providers, like the evidence-based program developed by the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Providing physicians and APPs with effective onboarding, training, feedback, mentorship, recognition, and appreciation can show them how much you value them and can help prevent turnover.
11. Highlight innovation. To attract forward-thinking individuals, focus on innovation and technology. Feature the advanced tools and procedures your facility offers. Create opportunities to engage in problem-solving initiatives. Spotlight telehealth opportunities, clinical research, technological advancements, and other cutting-edge developments at your facility.
12. Focus on the human element. As you endeavor to attract high-quality providers, remember why they chose their field. Ensure your organization maximizes face-to-face time for providers to interact with patients and focuses on treating the whole patient. Give employees opportunities to volunteer and serve the community. Ensure your organization’s values and mission are reflected in day-to-day operations and focus on family, diversity, equity, and inclusivity.

How Cross Country Search/Cejka Search Can Help

We’re focused on finding top talent and can get you the highly skilled physicians and APPs you need. Connect with one of our representatives today at crosscountrysearch.com.