Merritt Hawkins, a healthcare search and consulting firm specializing in recruitment, released its 2017 Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives report.
The report is based off of 3,287 permanent physician and advanced practitioner search assignments completed by Merritt Hawkins and affiliated staffing companies between April 1, 2016 and March 31, 2017.
Here are the 20 specialties in highest demand:
1. Family medicine
2. Psychiatry
3. Internal medicine
4. Nurse practitioner
5. OB/GYN
6. Hospitalist
7. Emergency medicine
8. Physician assistant
9. Dermatology
10. Radiology
11. Pediatrics
12. Urgent care
13. Gastroenterology
14. Pulmonology
15. Cardiology
16. Orthopedics
17. Neurology
18. General Surgery
19. Anesthesiology
20. ENT
Notable findings:
- Anesthesia fell off the list in 2010, but returned in 2017. Merritt's Hawkins suggests this is because of an increase in the number of procedures requiring anesthesia with a diminishing candidate pool.
- Orthopedic surgeons, neurologists, dermatologists, gastroenterologists and cardiologists are all in steady demand.