The healthcare industry faces a challenging trend: after years of growth, offer acceptance rates for both physicians and advanced practice providers (APPs) declined in 2022. This shift occurs amidst high healthcare provider burnout and escalating costs associated with physician turnover. In response to these challenges—Hayes Locums is here to offer strategic solutions for healthcare recruitment and retention.
The Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment’s (AAPPR) 2023 Annual Report provides insight into this trend. It reveals that APPs accepted 82% of offers extended to them, while physicians accepted only 71%. These figures underscore the growing challenge of recruiting and retaining healthcare professionals.
Here’s what’s behind the trend, and healthcare recruiting strategies to help medical facilities respond:
Understanding APP and Physician Turnover Trends
Retirement and compensation are key factors in APP and physician turnover; but with differing impacts. Physicians are leaving medicine primarily due to retirement (32% vs 5% for APPs), while APPs are more likely to leave for compensation reasons (30% vs 7%).
Bureaucracy is a commonly cited reason for physician turnover. Physicians entered the healthcare field because they wanted to care for patients. So when hospitals push physicians to increase their patient load to maximize profits, which can result in shorter appointments and less comprehensive care, physicians may choose to look elsewhere.
For APPs, compensation is crucial. If compensation is fair, APPs are 33% less likely to leave for another position. APPs also value practicing to the fullest scope of their abilities. Whether it’s due to individual hospital bylaws or state laws, APPs who are hampered in terms of exercising their skills may find themselves leaving for practices or states that are friendlier to APPs.
Healthcare provider burnout remains a factor for both physicians and APPs, but thankfully, burnout rates are on a downward trend. Healthcare provider burnout was 61% at the height of the pandemic, but it is now lower than 50%.
Medical specialties are also a factor; higher-stress specialties like emergency and internal medicine are among the most burned out providers, and see a higher turnover rate.
The High Cost of Physician Turnover for Facilities
Hospitals lose a stunning $4.6 billion per year due to provider turnover. Nearly $1 billion in excess patient costs are also tied to physician turnover, so there is a huge incentive to retain physicians and advanced practice providers.
But it’s not just the financial cost that matters for facilities. Turnover and staffing gaps can also have a huge impact on the morale of remaining staff members who have to pick up the slack when someone leaves. If those staff members are working too many hours, that can have a negative impact not just on their morale, but on patient safety.
It can also lead to even greater turnover if hospitals aren’t careful. Employee departure can sometimes have a domino effect, if the remaining staff doesn’t have the support that they need.
Proactive Recruitment and Retention Strategies in Healthcare
Turnover is always going to be a reality for healthcare facilities. That’s why hospitals need to make sure they have a sustainable staffing plan that will allow them to navigate turnover when it happens—especially during a time when accepted offers are trending downward.
When it comes to APPs, that means making sure they feel engaged and able to work to the fullest scope of their abilities. When APPs feel maximally optimized, they are 22% less likely to leave their position.
Giving APPs leadership opportunities is a great way to do that, whether having them sit on committees, weigh in on process and quality improvements, or take the lead on community outreach projects. Having an APP leader that is responsible for strategy and infrastructure for APPs is an even better strategy—not only does it make APPs feel more a part of the organization, it also means you can take advantage of their expertise to retain and support your other APP staff members.
That goes for physicians as well. Employees are always less likely to leave when they have more of a connection with their team, so it’s also important to make sure that you have a collaborative work environment where everyone feels heard and respected. Making sure that physicians feel like they are part of the decision making process is deeply important to retention.
And because physician burnout is still a major issue, it’s crucial to make sure to keep patient loads manageable—which also means making sure you are always adequately staffed, even when turnover occurs.
Leveraging Locum Tenens to Bridge Staffing Gaps
While sustainable staffing plans can help you retain your staff, it’s also important to have a plan for when staffing gaps inevitably arise. When a provider leaves, remaining staff members have to fill the gap until a hospital can bring in someone new. But that can impact morale and patient safety, especially if those staff members are working too many hours.
That’s where locum tenens comes in. When you have an unexpected absence, locums can help you ensure that those temporary staffing gaps don’t compound into larger turnover trends. By providing quality physicians to ensure there are no breaks in coverage, you can make sure that employee morale stays high.
That’s what locum tenens literally means: to hold the position of. When those unexpected staffing needs arise, locum tenens can help hold you over by providing quality providers until you’re ready to hire a full-time provider.
