In Physician Recruiting, Local Needs Trump National Trends

MGMA found that orthopedic surgeons reported median compensation of $514,659 -- the highest median of and specialty in the survey -- up 3.7% from 2009, and 15.2% from 2006. However, urologists reported median compensation of $372,455, a drop of 4.66% from 2009, and up 4.15% from 2006, while radiology/diagnostic reported median compensation of $471,253, a drop of 1.6% compared to 2009, and up 5.5% from 2006.

"The cuts in imaging continue to impact cardiology, radiology, and urology, but the big trend toward hospital employment for cardiology probably kept them from seeing any big losses," Hertz says.

While it might be difficult to spot firm and fast trends in physician recruiting, Hertz says, healthcare organizations that are successful at physician recruiting do share some common characteristics.

"All too often the healthcare organization, to be an effective recruiter, thinks it's all tied up with money. For the new docs money is important. But work/life balance, quality of life, integrity, transparency, those are all important issues," Hertz pointed out. "The successful groups from a recruiting standpoint are those that embrace the latest social networking and embrace some of the Internet technology to surface candidates."