Locating the right physician for a health care organization can be a long, time-consuming process. Worse, after going through a candidate search and hiring an individual, it may turn out the person isn’t the best fit for the position. This means going back to the drawing board and wasting more time and money.
To make the doctor search even more complicated, the number of total active physicians in all specialties is not rising as quickly as demand, according to The Association of American Medical Colleges. The absolute number of physicians has grown just 3.5 percent between 2010 and 2015, while it needed to increase by 1 percent per year to keep pace. This trend will see the U.S. face a shortage of between 61,700 and 94,700 physicians by 2025.
A medical staffing software platform can make a major difference in the physician candidate search. Consider these benefits to using a medical staffing software platform to locate the best-qualified doctors:
Locating the right physician by specialty
From surgeons to oncologists to pediatricians, it’s imperative that hospitals, clinics and other health care organizations locate a candidate practicing in the right specialty. Simply using a blanket search to find a physician won’t always yield the right fit, and scouring through numerous prospects requires a substantial amount of resources. Further, this problem becomes magnified in rural areas where many specialists, such as oncologists, are already in short supply.
As the general population continues to live longer and more doctors retire, it can be difficult finding the right physician by specialty. Using a medical staffing software platform with physician-specific templates ensures recruiters and health care organizations can quickly and effectively locate the specialty needed for the position.
Reducing physician burnout
With such a high demand placed on physicians to deliver high-quality care to a growing number of patients, it should come as no surprise that burnout and exhaustion are commonplace. In fact, not only is this a regular occurrence, the incident of physician burnout is growing.
According to a study conducted by the Mayo Clinic, the rate of physicians reporting at least one symptom of burnout grew from 45.5 percent in 2011 to 54.4 percent in 2014.
“Burnout manifests as emotional exhaustion, loss of meaning in work, and feelings of ineffectiveness,” explained Tait Shanafelt, M.D., the study’s lead author. “What we found is that more physicians in almost every specialty are feeling this way, and that’s not good for them, their families, the medical profession, or patients.”
Utilizing temporary physician staffing ensures health care facilities can provide doctors more vacation time, longer maternity leave and other time off. This lets doctors refresh, recharge and recalibrate, which all reduce the potential for burnout.
Relying on locum tenens
Health care providers rely on locum tenens, a Latin phrase for “placeholder,” practitioners to fill positions when a physician is absent or when a hospital is understaffed. Whether facilities need someone to cover for maternity leave, vacations, peak sickness seasons, high patient volume, medical leaves of absence or some other reason, a medical staffing software platform that allows for a quick and efficient search of locum tenens practitioners for hospitals, health systems, private practices and other health care facilities is crucial.
BlueSky Medical Staffing Software has the tools recruiters, medical staffing agencies and health care organizations need to find the right candidate for the position. This workforce management platform designed specifically for health care includes physician templates that search for doctors, whether by specialty, availability or skill set.
Click here to learn more about how BlueSky Medical Staffing Software can help find the right physician for the job.
