.png)
When a physician search takes longer than expected, the first question is often, “Why is this taking so long?”
It is an understandable question. Every additional day a position remains open can affect patient access, staff workloads, revenue, and the organization’s ability to grow. However, focusing only on time-to-fill can lead healthcare leaders to overlook the reasons a search is slowing down.
During the PracticeMatch webinar, Beyond Time-to-Fill: Building Recruitment Strategies for Today’s Physician Market, Clint Rosser, Chief Client Officer at PracticeMatch, explored why traditional recruitment expectations are no longer aligned with the realities of today’s market.
The central takeaway was clear: time-to-fill should be treated as a signal, not a report card for the recruitment team.
The Physician Recruitment Market Has Changed
Recruiters are not necessarily working less effectively. In many cases, they are working within a more competitive market, with smaller candidate pools and greater responsibilities.
PracticeMatch data shared during the webinar showed an average of just 0.4 applicants for every open physician position across leading specialties. This means there are approximately two and a half open jobs competing for every available applicant.
At the same time, organizations are asking recruitment teams to manage more searches, support retention efforts, coordinate interviews and site visits, assist with relocation, and contribute to broader workforce planning. The webinar noted that the median workload is approximately 36 requisitions per recruiter, although workloads can vary significantly by organization.
These pressures are occurring while physician candidates have more information and more choices. Compensation ranges, job descriptions, employee reviews, and information about competing organizations are easier to access than ever.
The recruitment strategies that worked five or ten years ago may no longer be enough to engage candidates or keep them moving through the process.
Time-to-Fill Is a Lagging Indicator
The webinar cited an AAPPR benchmark of approximately 121 median days to fill a physician position. While this can provide useful context, organizations should be cautious when comparing themselves directly to a national average.
Not every organization begins measuring time-to-fill at the same point. One may start when a requisition is approved, while another begins with the first job posting or marketing activity.
More importantly, time-to-fill only shows the final result. It does not explain what happened during the search.
A longer hiring cycle may signal:
- A limited specialty-specific candidate pool
- Low response or engagement rates
- Delays in interview scheduling
- Slow feedback from hiring leaders
- Stalled approvals
- Candidate drop-off after a site visit
- Unclear compensation or position expectations
Without visibility into these earlier stages, leadership may see a high time-to-fill number and assume the answer is to ask recruiters to work faster or conduct more outreach.
That approach can create more activity without solving the underlying problem.
Internal Delays Can Undermine Strong Recruiting
Recruiters can find qualified candidates and successfully build interest, but they cannot control every stage of the hiring process.
A candidate may wait several days for interview availability, department feedback, a compensation review, or approval to move forward. During that time, another organization may be communicating more consistently and moving through the process more smoothly.
These delays do more than extend the search. They also shape how candidates view the organization.
Physicians are evaluating the recruitment experience as an early indication of what it may be like to work there. Missed deadlines, inconsistent communication, or unclear next steps can raise questions about leadership, decision-making, and organizational support.
Internal friction is especially costly because reaching an interested candidate already requires considerable effort. PracticeMatch data discussed during the webinar showed that the number of connections needed to generate one candidate submittal increased from 13.6 in 2023 to 16.6 in 2025.
When a candidate reaches the later stages of the funnel and becomes disengaged because of an avoidable delay, recruiters must return to the beginning of an increasingly difficult sourcing process.
Candidate Expectations Extend Beyond the Offer
Compensation remains important, but it is only one part of a physician’s decision.
Candidates are also evaluating schedule sustainability, work-life balance, call expectations, leadership, team support, patient volume, staffing, RVU structures, and the resources available to help them provide care.
Those priorities are not the same for every physician. One candidate may be focused on earning potential, while another is more concerned with predictable scheduling or support from nurses and advanced practice providers.
Recruiters need enough information about the opportunity to understand what will resonate with each candidate. Generic messaging and one-size-fits-all outreach are less likely to stand out in a competitive market.
This also means communication should continue throughout the entire process. Candidates should understand what is happening, what comes next, and when they can expect an update.
Keeping candidates informed is not simply a courtesy. It is part of the organization’s employer brand.
Track What Happens Inside the Recruitment Funnel
A healthier recruitment strategy begins by measuring more than the final number of days required to fill a position.
Healthcare organizations should be able to see how candidates move from initial outreach to connection, submittal, interview, site visit, offer, and acceptance. They should also know how long candidates remain in each stage and where the greatest drop-off occurs.
Useful leading indicators may include:
- Outreach-to-connection rate
- Connections required per candidate submittal
- Time between recruitment stages
- Interview and site visit conversion rates
- Candidate withdrawal points
- Hiring manager response time
- Offer acceptance rate
These measurements give recruitment teams and leadership something actionable.
For example, a team may be generating enough candidates at the top of the funnel but losing them after the initial interview. In that case, increasing outreach will not address the problem. The organization needs to examine what candidates experience during and after that stage.
Clear ownership is also important. Every step of the process should have an accountable person or department, along with reasonable expectations for response times and feedback.
Faster Is Not Always Better
Open positions create pressure throughout a healthcare organization. Existing physicians may carry heavier workloads, supporting teams may experience greater stress, and patients may wait longer for care.
That pressure can lead organizations to prioritize speed over alignment.
However, moving too quickly without understanding a candidate’s expectations can result in a poor fit. A misaligned hire may lead to early turnover, renewed vacancy costs, lower team morale, and damage to the organization’s reputation among other physicians.
The goal should not be to make every stage move as quickly as possible. It should be to create a clear, responsive, and consistent process that allows both the organization and the candidate to make an informed decision.
Building a Recruitment Strategy for Today’s Market
Successful recruitment teams understand that the level of effort required will vary by specialty, location, and candidate pool.
They use market data to understand specialty depth, personalize outreach around candidate priorities, and use multiple channels to reach both active and passive candidates. These channels may include job boards, targeted sourcing, email, text messaging, digital advertising, career fairs, professional conferences, and direct mail.
They also regularly review their internal processes rather than waiting for time-to-fill to increase.
Longer searches should prompt better questions:
Where are candidates becoming disengaged? Which steps are taking the longest? Does the recruitment team have the tools and capacity required? Are hiring leaders responding quickly enough? Is the organization communicating what makes the opportunity different?
Time-to-fill still matters, but it cannot tell the complete story on its own.
By looking deeper into candidate behavior, specialty-specific market conditions, recruiter capacity, and internal bottlenecks, healthcare employers can build a recruitment process that is better aligned with today’s physician market.
Strengthen Your Physician Recruitment Strategy
PracticeMatch helps healthcare organizations reach physicians through targeted sourcing, recruitment marketing, career fairs, job advertising, and data-driven recruitment solutions. Connect with our team to explore strategies that can strengthen your candidate pipeline and support your organization’s hiring goals.
