According to the survey, nurse practitioners are most likely to hire suppliers

Nursing practitioners were the most popular service providers among physicians and experienced practitioners, according to a new report by search firm Merritt Hawkins.

This is the first time in the report’s 27-year history that doctors have not ranked first. According to Merritt Hawkins, in the past 14 years alone, family doctors have been the most sought-after position.

“COVID-19 and other market forces are reshaping the dynamics of recruiting doctors and highly skilled medical practitioners,” Merritt Hawkins President Tom Florence said in a statement. IRs come into their own in a marketplace that prioritizes easy access to care and cost containment.

According to Florence, nurse practitioners are in demand for staffing emergency centers and clinics, as well as for telemedicine services.

The report notes that an increasing number of patients, often younger, are choosing alternatives to traditional primary care settings, which also reduces the demand for primary care physicians, who were the second-largest providers to be recruited, according to the report.

“Primary care physicians continue to be a vital part of collective care and will have an increasing responsibility to coordinate the care of elderly patients with multiple chronic conditions,” said Florence. “But the frenzy of recruiting for primary health care is over.”

Searches for family doctors accounted for only 18% of Merritt Hawkins’ engagement for the year 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021 analyzed in the report, down from 20% the previous year and 22% two years earlier. the company said. In contrast, specialist physicians accounted for 64% of the firm’s searches in the past year, and experienced physicians, including nurse practitioners, paramedics, and certified registered nurse anesthetists, accounted for 18%.

Merritt Hawkins attributed the growing demand for specialists to the country’s aging population, the number of specialists approaching retirement age, and the ability of nurse practitioners to fulfill many of the responsibilities of primary care physicians. In a June 2021 report, the Association of American Colleges of Medicine estimated there would be a shortage of 48,000 primary care physicians and 77,000 specialists by 2034.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of searches that Merritt Hawkins performed for doctors fell 25%, but the company expects this decline in demand to be temporary and related to the pandemic’s shutdown. Florence said the factors that historically created demand for doctors still exist, such as a growing and aging population, a limited number of newly trained doctors, and an aging physician workforce.

The firm said starting salaries for many suppliers were also lower due to lower demand. However, nurse practitioners and paramedics have seen an increase. According to the report, the starting salary for nurse practitioners increased by 12% to $ 140,000, and for paramedics – by 14% to $ 128,000.

According to Modern Healthcare’s 28th Annual Physician Compensation Survey, which analyzes data from surveys of 10 employment firms, including Merritt Hawkins, physicians who typically see annual wage increases at the cost of living have generally experienced much more modest growth of wages in 2020. In 2020, the overall median median reported median physician compensation increased less than 0.5% year-over-year to $ 416,966. Compare that to 2019, when the overall average increased 2.7% over the previous year.

The health sector added 36,800 jobs in July, breaking the June decline, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the sector as a whole, the number of jobs improved every month in 2021, with the exception of June.

Merritt Hawkins is AMN Healthcare.