As baby boomers age, the demand for geriatric and psychiatric care continues to increase. Doctors are in shortage across the board and family physicians were the most highly recruited specialty for the 11th consecutive year. Pulmonologists lead in absolute demand or the highest share of search assignments compared to all physicians in that specialty, followed by psychiatrists. Physician search firm Merritt Hawkins released a review chronicling hiring trends based on 3,286 search assignments between April 1, 2016 and March 31, 2017. The report showed Merritt Hawkins, a division of AMN Healthcare, searched most for family doctors, psychiatrists, internists, obstetrician/gynecologists and hospitalists. This is only the second time psychiatrists were so high on the list of in-demand doctors. “You can’t do anything without a primary care physician, so they’ll probably always top the list,” senior vice president of Merritt Hawkins Travis Singleton says. “One of the biggest drivers on the healthcare market is the baby boomer generation, the great tsunami is hitting our population. They’re older, so it’s chronic care, it’s geriatric care.” The medical field will have to reconcile a changing demographic’s needs, demand for under compensated specialties and an overall shortage of medical professionals. Those doctors most in demand are not always those most highly compensated. Family doctors commanded an average base salary of $231,000 this year, up from $225,000 last year. That number reflects how doctors were recruited, and does not include bonuses or benefits awarded later in career. Orthopedic surgeons made an average $579,000 this year. Psychiatrists, the second most in demand physician, made $263,000. Singleton says primary care physicians will never make as much money as an orthopedic surgeon because the latter performs procedural work, which is paid more. Other well-compensated physicians include dermatology, earning an average $421,000, with some taking home as much as $1,000,000. Radiologists fared similarly, with an average $426,000.“What our review underscores is, yes primary care is in big demand, but just because specialties aren’t the headlines anymore, doesn’t mean they aren’t in demand” Singleton says. Singleton says he is worried about the lack of psychiatrists. “We call it the silent shortage,” he says. This year, Merritt Hawkins conducted more searches for psychiatrists than ever before. A report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services indicated there is a 6.4% shortage in the field. Though the silent shortage will need to be confronted, the $263,000 average salary of a psychiatrist likely will not draw newly minted MDs away from more lucrative specialties. This year’s report showed the “strongest correlation between supply and demand we’ve ever seen,” Travis Singleton says. “Healthcare has gone through more changes in the past three or four years. We’ve had changes really coming from all angles. We’ve been trying to see how that would all settle out, this year it started to take shape.” While the federal government debates the merits of Obamacare, the medical world debates the compensation and need of doctors. Source
