Congrats! After months of searching, you have at last hired a family medicine physician to fill the shoes of a retiree who left four months ago. But before you can breathe a sigh of relief, two new job requisitions appear on your desk. Each one more urgent than the next.
If it feels like you are in a never-ending game of physician recruitment whack-a-mole, you are not alone. According to the Association for the Advancement of Physician and Provider Recruitment Professionals’ 2025 Benchmarking Report, nearly half of physician searches remained open at the end of 2024, and the average time-to-fill is creeping upward. Turnover remains higher than pre-pandemic levels at 7.3% for physicians and 7.8% for advanced practice providers.
As Vice President of Physician Recruitment for Jackson Physician Search, I work with recruitment professionals every day who are under immense pressure to fill vacancies from shrinking candidate pools. The Association of American Medical Colleges projects a shortfall of up to 86,000 physicians by 2036, making recruitment more competitive than ever. Many organizations operate in crisis mode, scrambling to fill positions only after vacancies arise. This reactive approach leads to longer time-to-fill metrics, higher recruitment costs, and detrimental gaps in patient care.
The solution lies in shifting from reactive hiring to strategic physician recruitment — a proactive, data-driven approach that anticipates needs and builds sustainable talent pipelines. Here’s how healthcare organizations can make this critical transition.
Understanding the Reactive Physician Recruitment Trap
Reactive recruitment typically begins when a physician announces their departure or when a service line experiences unexpected increases in volume. The organization then rushes to post positions, contact recruiters, and review candidates under intense time pressure. This approach creates several problems. First, they may need to use expensive locum tenens providers to fill the gap. Additionally, the rushed timeline will result in limited candidate pools, reduced bargaining power in negotiations, and compromised cultural fit assessments.
When organizations are in reactive mode, they are more likely to accept whoever is available rather than selecting the best fit for the organization’s long-term success.
Building Your Strategic Foundation
The transition to strategic recruitment begins with comprehensive medical staff planning. Organizations must track physician demographics, including ages, tenure, and retirement projections. Reviewing historical turnover patterns by specialty and department helps identify trends, while monitoring patient volume trends and community growth patterns reveals emerging needs. Evaluating strategic initiatives that may require additional physician support ensures alignment between recruitment and organizational goals.
This analysis should extend at least three to five years into the future, creating a rolling forecast that’s updated quarterly and accompanied by physician succession plans. By knowing your needs before they become urgent, you can recruit from a position of strength rather than desperation.
Creating Robust Talent Pipelines
Strategic recruitment means maintaining relationships with potential candidates long before you have open positions. Start by engaging with residents and fellows through your GME programs, offering them early exposure to your organization and community. Building relationships with medical schools, particularly those in your region, creates awareness among students who may eventually seek practice opportunities.
Developing an alumni network of former residents and fellows keeps your organization top-of-mind when they’re ready for their next career move. Maintaining a talent database of previous strong candidates who weren’t hired due to timing ensures you can quickly reconnect when appropriate positions open. Attending specialty conferences and professional meetings provides networking opportunities beyond formal recruiting events.
These relationships should be nurtured consistently, not just when you have immediate openings. Rather than waiting for positions to open, strategic organizations conduct ongoing passive candidate outreach. This includes reaching out to potential candidates who aren’t actively searching but might be open to opportunities, and engaging with professionals on platforms like LinkedIn and Doximity to build relationships and share your organization’s story.
Regular touchpoints through newsletters, community updates, social media channels, or informal conversations keep candidates engaged and interested.
Leveraging Data and Technology
Modern strategic recruitment relies heavily on analytics. Track key recruitment metrics, including time-to-fill by specialty, cost-per-hire across different recruitment channels, offer acceptance rates, and retention rates for new hires at one, three, and five-year marks. These metrics reveal which recruitment strategies deliver the best return on investment.
Invest in applicant tracking systems designed for healthcare recruitment to automate candidate communication, track pipeline development, and generate reports that inform strategic decisions. Predictive analytics can help forecast future turnover risk based on historical patterns and current workforce data.
Strengthening Your Employee Value Proposition
Strategic recruitment requires a compelling answer to the question: “Why should physicians choose us?” Your employee value proposition should encompass competitive compensation packages that align with market data, professional development opportunities including CME support and leadership pathways, work-life balance initiatives that prevent burnout, and community integration support that helps physicians and their families thrive.
Regularly survey your current physicians to understand what attracted them to your organization and what keeps them engaged. Use these insights to refine your messaging and recruitment approach. Equally important, conduct exit interviews with outgoing physicians to understand why they are leaving and identify what, if anything, could have been done differently to make them stay.
Measuring Success and Continuous Improvement
The shift to strategic recruitment isn’t a one-time project but an ongoing evolution. Establish clear benchmarks for success beyond just filling positions quickly. Evaluate the quality of hire through performance reviews and cultural fit assessments, examine retention rates compared to industry benchmarks, assess hiring manager satisfaction with the recruitment process, and track candidate experience through surveys and feedback. Review these metrics quarterly with leadership, using insights to refine your strategic approach continuously.
Stop Putting Out Fires
Moving from reactive to strategic physician recruitment requires commitment, investment, and patience. The benefits, however, are substantial: reduced recruitment costs, shorter time-to-fill metrics, improved candidate quality and retention, and enhanced organizational stability. Most importantly, strategic recruitment ensures your patients have consistent access to the high-quality physicians they deserve.
The healthcare organizations that thrive in today’s competitive environment will be those that stop fighting fires and start preventing them through thoughtful, strategic physician recruitment.
If your organization is ready to make the shift from reactive to strategic physician recruitment, the recruitment team at Jackson Physician Search is eager to build a partnership around your team’s specific needs. Reach out today to learn more.
About Tara Osseck
With over 15 years of experience in the healthcare industry, Regional Vice President of Recruiting Tara Osseck specializes in matching healthcare organizations with physicians who are a strong cultural and professional fit. Her healthcare career began as a physician liaison. It quickly expanded to include physician recruitment, strategic planning, and business development, working for various hospitals throughout Memphis, Tennessee, and St. Louis, Missouri. Based in St. Louis, Osseck leads the firm’s Midwest Division, placing providers across the Midwest and Upper Midwest. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Truman State University and a master’s degree in healthcare administration and management from the University of Memphis.
