Not all healthcare employers are putting the same emphasis on recruiting searches for providers; hospital hiring is hampered by a “prevailing mood of uncertainty”
Despite the shortage of providers in healthcare, not all organizations are placing the same earnestness in recruiting additional help. That’s one of the more surprising observations from the annual review of provider searches by AMN Healthcare (formerly Merritt Hawkins).
The company provides staffing solutions, among other services, for healthcare organizations. Every year it compiles data from its searches to produce reports. This year AMN published its 32nd edition based on more than 1,400 searches during a 12-month period ending March 31, 2025.
While every healthcare employer seemingly needs additional staff, some categories are noticeably more active than others. We previously covered some of the quantitative healthcare provider compensation benchmarks. In this post, we’re looking at search trends by the type of healthcare employer segmented in the report.
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1. Hospital hiring hampered by a “prevailing mood of uncertainty”
AMN says hospitals accounted for 34% of the searches AMN conducted in this reporting period. That’s up from 28% the year prior, but it’s not a dramatic increase.
The report offers this analysis:
“Though hospitals often require additional physicians and APPs [advanced practice providers], recruiting activity may be impacted by the prevailing mood of uncertainty and by ongoing financial pressures that have caused some hospitals to close down or limit service lines that produce relatively little revenue, inhibiting their physician and APP recruiting activity.”
Rural hospitals face additional pressures from uncertainty around Medicare. Citing data from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the report “nearly 150 rural hospitals have closed in the last 15 years.”
This poses a real concern for rural healthcare. “A shortage of primary care physicians means hospitals are often the only source of care in rural areas.”
2. Teaching hospitals recruiting clinicians over researchers
AMN refers to teaching hospitals as Academic Medical Centers (AMCs) in the report. Searches at teaching hospitals climbed slightly to 28% from 22% in the same report a year prior.
Teaching hospitals appear to be thriving too:
“The majority of AMCs have experienced considerable growth over the last five years. Based on data analysis from McKinsey & Company of 45 leading AMCs, median operating revenue grew from $4.4 billion to $6.9 billion (a 57% increase) from 2017 to 2022.”
One potential societal drawback to this is that AMCs are focused on hiring providers for clinical duties, rather than research. The report says 89% of its searches for teaching hospitals were for “clinical faculty,” which is “the highest percent” in the report’s history.
Why? The report puts it this way:
“AMC’s today require physicians and physician scientists willing to see patients most of the time rather than conduct research, both because funding for research is becoming increasingly tenuous and because clinical work helps generate needed revenue.”
The report says “some AMCs have imposed hiring freezes as a result” of cuts imposed on research grants.
3. Medical groups are increasingly corporate-owned
Provider searches by medical groups, which AMN says has been fueled by private equity (PE) investment, fell slightly to 24% from 26% during this reporting period. PE has “expanded their footprint in the medical services market.”
We can see the impact on ownership of these medical groups:
“Between 2019 and 2022, there was a 9% increase in the number of hospital-owned physician practices. In the same time frame, there was an 86% increase in the number of corporate-owned physician practices.”
While search trends appear to have slipped some among this cohort during this snapshot in time, the report forecasts that “recruitment activity at equity-backed medical groups” will remain strong.
4. Urgent care is the ‘new front door’ for healthcare
Providers have more choices in employers than ever, as our Porter’s Five Forces analysis of healthcare shows. The explosion in urgent care facilities is one example; however, searches stemming from these facilities also dipped to 10% – down from 13% the year prior.
AMN isn’t counting them out, however, as long as consumer demand for the convenience of urgent care remains:
“Backed by the resources of retail giants, large hospital systems, and private equity companies, these venues have the ability to add personnel while seeking to create a ‘new front door’ to the healthcare system.”
This cohort of healthcare employers has put much of its emphasis on APPs:
“Many of these settings have expanded from offering basic primary care services provided mostly by NPs and PAs to offering more complex chronic care provided by primary care physicians and physician specialists.”
5. Solo and partnership practices continue to fall
Only 1% of the searches AMN conducted this reporting period were from solo practices or those owned by a partnership. That’s down from 6% the year prior.
The report places this decline squarely on the shift in ownership:
“Independent medical practice ownership has dwindled in recent years, and today 77% of physicians are employed by a hospital, hospital system, or other corporate entity, according to the Physicians Advisory Institute, up from 26% in 2012.”
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The complete report contains much more information on provider recruitment and search trends. It can be downloaded here (registration required): 2025 Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives by AMN Healthcare.
See the software for yourself! Healthcare Workforce Management is designed specifically for rural healthcare recruiting: Contact us for a no-obligation demo.
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