What Are The Hot Specialties Today? - Continued
MHA's 2003 Survey of Hospital Recruitment Trends indicates that 85% of all hospitals are recruiting physicians. Over 95% of larger hospitals of 200 beds or more are recruiting physicians. The graph below indicates what type of physicians hospitals are currently recruiting:
What types of physicians are you now recruiting?
| Family physicians | | 45% |
| Internal medicine | | 32% |
| Orthopedic surgery | | 31% |
| General surgeons | | 27% |
| Cardiologists | | 23% |
| OB/GYN | | 21% |
| Anesthesiologists | | 20% |
Source: MHA 2003 Survey of Hospital Recruitment Trends
The Survey of Physician Recruiting Trends indicates that more hospitals are currently seeking primary care physicians than any other type of doctor. However, because the supply of primary care physicians is generally equal to the demand, hospitals and other employers are not always compelled to retain search firms such as MHA to find primary care physicians. By contrast, they often do have to retain search firms to help them find specialists such as radiologists - explaining why radiology was MHA's number one search last year.
The graph below shows which specialties hospital administrators consider the most difficult to recruit:
Rate the following specialties by how difficult they are to recruit today
| Specialty | | Very difficult |
| |
| Radiology | | 63% |
| Orthopedic surgery | | 57% |
| Anesthesiology | | 49% |
| Cardiologists | | 47% |
| Rheumatologists | | 46% |
| Family physicians | | 13% |
| Internal medicine | | 13% |
| Pediatrics | | 11% |
Source: MHA 2003 Survey of Hospital Physician Recruitment Trends
Primary care physicians coming out of training may find that there are many positions available, but they also may find that there are sufficient physicians to fill these positions. Their choice of a practice, therefore, may be more limited than a radiologist's, who may have many practices in a variety of geographic areas to choose from.
For both specialists and primary care physicians, however, there is no lack of available practices. The old slogan in the physician staffing industry (i.e., "There is no such thing as an unemployed physician") is as true today as when it was coined in the early 1980s. Trends come and go, and at times, certain types of physicians have more opportunities and greater latitude in their choices than others. In general, however, a physician who is well trained and has a positive attitude will always find a welcome somewhere.
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