During this time of healthcare recruiting challenges, recruiters play a critical role in maintaining well-staffed medical facilities and ensuring that patients receive continuous quality care.
Healthcare recruitment is a complex and demanding task at any time, but especially now, as physician shortages continue to grow. That means it’s more important than ever to recognize and support the work of your healthcare recruiting team.
Here are some positive ways I’ve seen healthcare facilities support their recruitment teams:
1. Thinking creatively to address healthcare recruiting challenges
According to this year’s projections from the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges), the United States could be facing a shortage of up to 86K physicians by 2036––just over a decade away.
While that number might just look like any other statistic to the average American, healthcare recruiters know what the consequences of that shortage look like: longer wait times for patients to receive crucial care, decreased health outcomes for patients whose conditions rely on catching and treating them quickly, and loss of revenue––or even departmental shutdowns––for hospitals that are unable to provide adequate and continuous coverage.
Healthcare recruiters are the ones who stand in the gap to make sure their facilities stay staffed so that departments remain in operation and patients receive continuous care. But they can’t do it alone. That’s why it’s so important for healthcare facilities to think creatively about how to support their healthcare staffing teams—including finding partners that they can rely on.
2. Partnering with trusted locums recruiting agencies to offer support
With physician shortages continuing to grow, even the best healthcare recruiters often find themselves in need of outside support. That’s why it’s important to have a trusted locum tenens agency––so that when those unexpected needs come up, you know who to call.
Locums is a flexible and effective staffing solution that can help facilities navigate all kinds of gaps in coverage, and quickly provide qualified medical professionals when emergency situations arise. At Hayes Locums, our specialty-specific consultants are experts in their field and have a deep understanding of their client’s situation. That means when last-minute needs come up, we can move quickly, confident in our knowledge of what each facility needs, and in our ability to find the best candidate to fill it within our pipeline of trusted providers.
The ability to rely on a trusted locums recruiting partner to help fill a need can make the difference between whether or not departments are able to operate with adequate coverage and patients are able to receive care––it can even be the difference between life or death.
Neurology consultant Tim Moses remembers a story of when a locum doctor saved a patient’s life by providing an expert level of care in their facility that no one else was capable of. The hospital in question didn’t have neuro ICU doctors, and instead staffed their ICU with a combination of neurohospitalists and critical care doctors. So when they called Hayes Locums asking for a neurohospitalist, Moses decided to send a physician that he knew had experience in the neuro ICU––which ended up being a lifesaver.
“When a patient started to crash and got sent to the ICU, the critical care doctor had no idea how to get the patient to stabilize,” Moses said. “One of our locums stepped in and was able to stabilize the patient within 10 minutes. The other doctor that we had there called me afterward and said, ‘this provider saved that patient’s life. And if she wasn’t there, this patient wouldn’t have survived.’ It was something where we really took a step back and said, wow, we’re making an impact here.”
3. Showing appreciation for your healthcare recruiting team
Healthcare recruiters go above and beyond every day to make sure that our medical facilities are staffed with skilled and quality medical professionals, so that their communities can stay healthy. So it’s important that we celebrate them and the important work that they do every day.
Joining organizations such as the Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment (AAPPR) can be a crucial investment in your team. AAPPR offers comprehensive strategies, tools, and support to help recruitment professionals excel in their roles. Membership provides access to resources designed to improve retention and recruitment efforts, ensuring that your team is equipped to meet the demands of the healthcare industry.
They also acknowledge the invaluable impact recruitment professionals have on our communities. From offering regular recognition to employees who go above and beyond in their recruitment efforts to sharing stories of how effective recruitment has directly impacted patients’ lives.
Healthcare facilities can continue to invest in their recruitment teams by celebrating staffing wins on a regular basis, offering opportunities for professional development––and most importantly, by ensuring that their recruiters are supported, by both their facility and with outside help when needed, every day.
