With the demand for physicians and mid-level healthcare providers increasing, but the amount of applicants and actual providers decreasing, the market for acquiring talent has been increasingly difficult for many organizations. To make matters worse, a study by McKinsey shows nearly half (48%) of people are leaving their current jobs and moving to an entirely new industry. Worldwide, only 35% who quit in the last two years took on a new role in the same sector. With this large amount of turnover, partially due to burnout from COVID-19, and lowered prospective providers, talent acquisition teams throughout all healthcare organizations have been working harder and becoming more creative with reeling in talent.
There are numerous creative pitches being thrown at healthcare providers, with some organizations providing simple perks that may move the needle slightly forward. One perk, however, has not only been a special leverage mechanism for recruiters but also a perk that’s often sought out by prospective employees. Imagine hearing the following creative pitch, which essentially asks a prospective employee to decide whether they would be interested in the following scenario: “How would you like to come to work and leave on time? How would you like to have all the aspects of your job that you dislike taken care of for you, and allowing you to focus solely on treating patients and making sure they’re being given all of your attention? Finally, how would you feel to have all your documents delivered in a timely and accurate fashion, so you don’t have to stay late trying to remember all your patient encounters?” With a pitch like that, it’s almost difficult to say no. Many recruiters are now turning to the acquisition of medical scribes in their healthcare organization to not only assist with the overall efficacy of the organization, but to also draw in talent from across the world.
Healthcare recruiters are going deep into their bag of tricks and are utilizing medical scribes as an incentive or selling point when negotiating and attracting prospective employees. Listing the numerous benefits that medical scribes provide can greatly outline the company’s culture of treating their physicians with additional support as well as adhering to higher documentation and EHR standards. Additionally, as a long-term investment with medical scribes, healthcare recruiters have the opportunity to reach out to medical scribes who have eventually gone into medical school and finished residency and wish to return to the same system they’ve spent their early years working in.
Medical scribes provide a unique benefit when recruiting physicians and healthcare providers by alleviating many of the clerical burdens they face. The same burdens, as reported by the American Medical Association, include documentation, updating billing and coding references, updating labs and results, and sending out calls for consultations. Medical scribes are a perfect pitch for any healthcare recruiter attempting to add value to their workforce. Offering medical scribe services plays a pivotal role in incentivizing potential candidates for any healthcare system looking to stand out in a competitive recruitment environment and in some cases, can potentially even develop talent acquisition opportunities in-house.