There were more clinicians willing to sign relocation bonuses last year than in previous years, according to a Medicus Firm report and cited in a Medscape article.
The survey examined data from more than 200 hospitals, health systems and medical groups.
Here are six key notes from the report:
1. The average signing bonus in 2011 was $21,118, but jumped to $23,663 last year. In 2014, the average signing bonus was $20,839, making the year-over-year jump more significant.
2. There were 74 percent of clinicians who received a signing bonus in 2014, and that number decreased to 68 percent in 2015. The decrease is due potentially to job placement focused on physician assistants, nurse practitioners and academic physicians who are less likely to receive bonuses than physicians who are hospital-employed.
3. The average relocation bonus was relatively flat over the past five years; in 2011, the relocation bonus was $12,306 and declined slightly over the next few years to $12,125 in 2015.
4. The most in-demand clinicians last year were family physicians, followed by internists and hospitalists. Orthopedic surgeons were number nine and gastroenterologists were number seven.
5. Medicus reported 92 percent of physicians recruited became hospital employees, health system employees or medical group employees. In 2014, 85 percent of the recruits became employees. Only 8 percent of the physicians recruited last year were placed into private practice.
6. Thirty-seven percent of the placements occurred in urban areas, compared with 31 percent in small cities and 32 percent in rural areas. In 2012 and 2013, only 25 percent of the physicians were placed in large cities.