“Recruitment assistance is too expensive.”
“We just don’t have funding for a physician recruitment firm.”
“Our organization can’t afford to hire an outside recruitment partner.”
Our business development team sometimes hears these kinds of responses when they first reach out to administrators, hiring managers, and recruiters within healthcare organizations. Whether they’ve had less-than-desirable outcomes with other firms in the past or have never worked with a physician recruitment partner, it’s not unusual to witness caution when deciding to take on the expense of a physician recruitment firm, especially when they are already facing a vacancy, possible locum costs, and of course, recruitment incentives. Even those willing to consider it often want to try on their own for a while before bringing on a partner – but at what cost? Every month that a position remains vacant results in hundreds of thousands in lost revenue. With so much at stake, how can you afford not to leverage every resource available? Our business development team understands that budgets are tight and there’s no room for frivolous expenses, but what if we could prove that the right recruitment partner is anything but frivolous?
Yes, there are costs involved with a physician recruitment partner, but the lost revenue created by a lengthy physician vacancy will cost your organization far more. Nothing demonstrates this better than the Physician Recruitment ROI Calculator on the new Jackson Physician Search website. Users select the type of physician they are seeking and enter how long the position has been vacant. The calculator then displays the amount of lost revenue caused by the vacancy so far. Then, using the national average time-to-fill for that specialty and the Jackson Physician Search average time-to-fill, the calculator compares the revenue lost during the national average with the amount lost during the Jackson Physician Search average. In every case, the improved time-to-fill with Jackson Physician Search means the vacancy is shorter; thus, the revenue lost is lower.
Measuring Physician Recruitment ROI
The recruitment ROI Calculator demonstrates that by leveraging Jackson Physician Search as a dedicated resource, the length of a search will be shorter and thus less costly for the hiring organization, even when factoring in the expenses involved with taking on a recruitment partner. Consider each of the following scenarios:
Scenario #1
A primary care clinic located about an hour outside of a Midwestern metro needs to hire a family medicine physician to replace Dr. G, whose health is causing him to retire immediately. In his absence, the clinic will likely lose an average of $109,223 per month. Based on the national average time-to-fill, the clinic will take 7.3 months to hire a physician, causing a lost revenue of $797,328. If the clinic partners with Jackson Physician Search, it will take, on average, 5.7 months to hire a physician, meaning the clinic’s lost revenue is reduced to $622,571.
Result: The clinic will earn $174,757 by partnering with Jackson Physician Search.
Scenario #2
A West Coast private practice urgently needs to hire an orthopedic surgeon to replace a physician who resigned with little notice. Each month the position is vacant, the group will lose approximately $219,835. According to the national average time-to-fill for orthopedic surgeons, the position will be vacant for 7.9 months, causing lost revenue of $ 1,736,697. If the group partners with Jackson Physician Search, the average length of the search will be just 4.2 months, reducing the lost revenue to $923,307.
Result: The group will earn $813,390 by partnering with Jackson Physician Search.
Making the Case for a Physician Recruitment Firm
Of course, each physician search is unique, and the numbers used for the national time-to-fill and the Jackson Physician Search time-to-fill are simply averages. However, you can browse our library of Physician Placement Success Stories for 75+ real examples. As you’ll see, searches may be longer or shorter than the average, depending on the circumstances. However, the takeaway of the ROI Calculator is not in the exact lengths of the searches but in the overarching trend that physician searches move faster and more efficiently with Jackson Physician Search. This means your investment in our recruitment services will pay for itself in recouped lost revenue.
How do we do it? More than a decade ago, we pioneered the first all-digital physician recruitment process, and in the years since, we continue to innovate to ensure we are leveraging the most effective tools available. For each search we open, the opportunity is posted on a carefully curated network of 10+ job boards. We develop a targeted email campaign for each job and send it to the most relevant physicians in our database, which happens to be the largest opted-in physician database in the industry. Jackson Physician Search is the only recruitment firm that provides each recruiter a license to recruit on Doximity, currently the largest online network for physicians. Our data-driven social media strategy maximizes visibility and meets physicians where we know them to be, even as we monitor trends indicating where they might go next.
These methods expedite our success, but only when the offer is right. This is why our recruitment team analyzes market data and works closely with the client to determine the compensation range needed to attract candidates and, from there, establish the interview protocols required to seal the deal. Organizations that trust our recommendations from the start and are willing to advertise the high end of a compensation range (knowing the job ad is not an offer) are the ones who see the fastest results and, thus, the best ROI on the recruitment partnership. That is, by reducing their time-to-fill, they minimize the lost revenue created by physician vacancies. Check out the Recruitment ROI Calculator to see for yourself how much a partnership with Jackson Physician Search can earn your organization.
Are you considering a physician recruitment partner but not sure how to justify the expense? The Recruitment ROI Calculator is a great place to start, but our business development team can provide even more information. Our commitment to transparency means you know what to expect at every juncture. Reach out to the team at Jackson Physician Search today to learn exactly what a partnership entails.
Have More Questions About the Physician Recruitment Process?
The Physician Recruitment Resource Center offers articles, White Papers, infographics, and more to walk you through the challenges related to physician recruitment, retention, and retirement.
