Report: Primary Care Doctors in Greatest Demand

Most Facilities Use Signing Bonuses to Lure Physicians

IRVING, Texas, June 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Primary care physicians are in greater
demand today than any other type of doctor, according to a new report by
national physician search firm Merritt Hawkins & Associates, an AMN Healthcare
company.

The firm's 2009 Review of Physician Recruiting Incentives tracks over 3,200
physician recruiting assignments Merritt Hawkins conducted from April 1, 2008,
to March 31, 2009. During that period, the company fielded more requests for
family physicians than for any other type of doctor, followed by general
internists, who also provide primary care. Requests for primary care doctors,
defined as family physicians, internists and pediatricians, increased 23
percent over the previous 12-month period examined in the survey.

"Virtually every hospital or large medical group in the United States would be
happy to add a family physician or general internist," notes Merritt Hawkins'
president Mark Smith. "There simply are not enough primary care doctors to go
around."

According to Smith, a shortage of primary care doctors is the result of a
burgeoning demand for primary care services combined with a shrinking supply
of generalist physicians. Fewer medical students are choosing primary care
specialties at a time when the population is both growing and aging, Smith
notes. The shortage of primary care physicians will only be exacerbated if
access to medical services is expanded through healthcare reform, Smith says.

General surgeons, who often are referred to as the "primary care physicians of
surgery," follow internists (and internists working as hospitalists) on
Merritt Hawkins' list of most in-demand physicians. General surgery is
another specialty that is less favored by medical students today, Smith
observes, and many general surgeons are retiring with no doctors to replace
them.

Merritt Hawkins' report tracks the types of incentives typically used to
recruit physicians. Signing bonuses were offered to physicians in 85 percent
of the searches Merritt Hawkins represented in 2008/09, up from 74 percent the
previous year and up from 58 percent three years ago. The report shows that
the average signing bonus offered to physicians is $24,850, in addition to
salaries ranging from $171,000 for pediatricians to $481,000 for orthopedic
surgeons. The widespread use of signing bonuses underlines the increasingly
competitive nature of physician recruiting, according to Smith.

Though physicians have traditionally operated as independent practitioners,
the report suggests that more hospitals are hiring physicians as employees and
paying them directly through salaries. In 2005/06, 23 percent of the
physician search assignments Merritt Hawkins represented featured physician
employment by a hospital. In the 2008/09, that number increased to 45
percent.

"Many physicians today are throwing in the towel when it comes to private
practice," Smith says. "They are exchanging independence for the relative
simplicity and security of employment."

Complete results of Merritt Hawkins & Associates' 2009 Review of Physician
Recruiting Incentives can be accessed at www.merritthawkins.com.

About Merritt Hawkins & Associates

Merritt Hawkins & Associates is the largest permanent placement physician
recruiting firm in the United States and is an AMN Healthcare company. AMN is
the nation's leading healthcare staffing company and the largest nationwide
provider in all four of its business lines: travel nurse staffing, locum
tenens staffing, physician permanent placement services and allied healthcare
professional staffing.

SOURCE Merritt Hawkins & Associates

Phillip Miller, +1-469-524-1420, pmiller@mhagroup.com, for Merritt Hawkins &
Associates