Future of physician recruiting

Group practices need to be wary of assuming that the anticipated surplus of physicians will make recruiting any easier. Problems previously associated with candidate identification will give way to how to best manage the screening, interviewing and evaluation of prospective candidates. Furthermore, increasing numbers of physicians competing for patients in the medical care marketplace will pose a direct threat to established groups. This is already occurring in many areas of the country. A recent example of this is occurring with an 85-person multispecialty group in a city of 120,000 with a service of 220,000. A nearby town of 50,000 with a 200-bed hospital is actively recruiting its own physicians. The result will be a steadily eroding referral base for the large multispecialty group over the next five years.