Trend: Search firms, in-house recruiters focus on Internet to find doctors

In the past, it was fairly standard for medical practices and hospitals to pick up the phone and contact their favorite physician search firm when they needed to recruit a doctor.

These days, however, search firms are losing business to in-house recruiters, many of whom are finding low-cost Internet recruiting to be a successful method for finding the physicians they're seeking. Many recruiters only work with search firms when they have multiple openings or need to fill a position requiring a difficult-to-find specialty, observers say.

In fact, according to a recent survey by the Association of Staff Physician Recruiters, 51 percent of respondents said that posting on web-based job boards was the best way of filling physician openings. Other methods, such as networking with doctors already on staff, were way behind, at 15 percent or less.

In addition to using established web-based job boards, a smaller number of recruiters and search firms have begun to use emerging social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook.

Geisinger Health System of Danville, Penn., for example, posted a Facebook page early this year offering videos of physicians talking about life in the region and work at the health system. On Twitter, meanwhile, recruiters often include search tags such as #jobs and #physician in tweets when posting doctor recruitment links.

To learn more about this trend:
- read this American Medical News piece [1]

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Healthcare staffing firms poised for growth [4]