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Writer's pictureKelvin Madris

How to Manage Doctor Staffing Costs?


Hiring doctors could be an easy task if you have a medical school associated with your university, especially if you want resident doctors, junior doctors, and trainees. Hiring for senior positions, however, is always challenging. Finding expert surgeons and experienced medical consultants with great track records is a complex process. One major factor affecting hiring senior doctors and consultants is costs. How to make physician staffing estimations is something this blog is going to talk about. Discover how you could make doctor staffing more efficient in terms of quality of hire and cost of hire metrics. One of the most respected professions worldwide is from the medical field, the DOCTORS! The increased demand for doctors worldwide and the importance of doctors makes it extremely important that the recruitment should be done with utmost care and research, and in this pressure, there comes the hurdle of financial decisions as well. You could tie up with doctor staffing or doctor recruitment agencies. Professional doctor recruiters have insights gained through continuous research done in the field of recruiting and experience, making the process more reliable and smoother. Find out more about doctor recruitment costs through an understanding of the various factors that go into the process. This guide will help you out in your basic research and will familiarize you with the topic in greater depth about how to make physician staffing cost estimations and general costs of hiring doctors based on practice areas.


How To Make Physician Staffing Cost Estimations

Not only is hiring doctors extremely challenging but when it comes to hiring from global locations, there is a lot more to consider than hiring from onshore locations. The process only becomes more complex when specialist doctors need to be hired. How will you be able to make highly predictable estimates of doctor staffing costs over a year? Here are some factors to consider and add up to when making those estimates.


1. Salary

The very first and basic aspect is the salary when calculating the staffing cost, the basic amount that the physician deserves for their services, and their hard work. Different locations have different salaries for the same position. This salary is affected by a lot of factors like the location, the industry sector, the demand of the particular position, the talent of the person, and the performance thereafter. One thing to consider is that there is a minimum wage/salary that is set by the government or organization and even expected by the candidate. When hiring from offshore locations, get the figures right from the main sources themselves.


2. Benefits

Along with the base salary, there are a lot of benefits that are offered to your doctor staff. These benefits packages do make a difference in the competitive world of healthcare recruitment. If a hospital offers quite attractive benefits packages, it is able to attract brilliant talent faster than the organizations that do not.


3. Insurance

What attracts the physicians more, and are also very basic requirements to be included in calculating the cost, are the insurance coverage types your hospital offers, the life insurance, health insurance, dental insurance, long-term disability insurance, etc. Most of the hospitals provide this insurance coverage at different costs, as per their budget.


4. Relocation Costs (if the doctor is hired from a different location)

When hiring a doctor from a different city, or even country, you have to also take into consideration factors like accommodation expenses or allowance, compensation travel costs for the final recruitment stage when you need to invite him to spend a day at your hospital and take detailed interview sessions. While hiring a doctor, the expenses that would occur from their relocation need to be included, too, as moving is very expensive.


5. Referral Costs (if the doctor is hired through a referral system)

The referral system is very used these days, and when a doctor is hired via a referral system, the costs incurred through that should also be included in the doctor staffing costs.


6. Interview Expenses

Interviewing also involves time and money spent on scheduling, managing, and arranging for the interviews. You might need to hire external experts when hiring for very senior roles.


7. Training and Gadgets

Once doctors are hired, the training phase starts. There is a period of time when a hospital needs to conduct special sessions to make the doctors get on the same page as the existing staff on a number of different matters related to routine work. These expenses should also be covered in doctor staffing. Every doctor needs their own work systems and office supplies. With every new doctor hired, a whole list of supplies needs to be purchased, which could cost about a thousand dollars sometimes.


General Costs of Hiring Doctors Based on Practice Areas

Now that you have gone through what all factors should be considered when making the doctor staffing cost estimates let us look into how total hiring costs vary based on practice areas. When talking about the general costs of hiring doctors as per the practice areas, as per the specializations, the hiring costs differ, the differences vary across geographical locations for the same kind of positions.


1. General Physicians

General physicians are the doctors who have specialized in general medicine and do not perform surgeries but provide non-surgical care to the patients. When hiring from different geographical locations, you would need to take note of the compensation that is offered in those regions. The general physician salaries in the USA could go up to $242,400 while specialist doctor salaries would be higher than $300,000. In Germany, general physicians could demand a salary above $200,000, and specialist doctors are paid about $220,000 and more.


2. Internal Medicine

Talking about the doctor of internal medicine, these doctors are the ones who apply scientific knowledge and their expertise in the clinic to diagnose, treat and show care to the adults’ illnesses. They come as a savior when there occurs a confusing medical problem, and as per their ability to solve complex problems, they are paid more, like about $230,000 or more in some states in the US.


3. Specialist Doctors

Specialist doctors are the ones who have taken years of hardwork in specializing in a particular field by taking advanced education and clinical training. These specialists, as per the demand and skill, are paid accordingly but usually higher than the other doctors. We have already discussed the differences earlier.


4. Surgeons

Surgeons are among the highest-paid among doctors. They get paid not only a salary but also additional money per surgery in many countries. The commission per consultation also differs from that of specialist doctors and GPs. A hospital earns most of its revenues through surgeries and consultation provided by surgeons, and therefore these professionals get paid much more than other doctors. In the US, their compensation could go up to $400,000 and more.


5. Non-Invasive Surgery Doctors

A non-invasive surgery is one that does not need any kind of incision into the body and does not include any kind of removal of any bodily part, like the doctors of cardiology or radiology, etc. Their salaries do not differ a lot from other surgeons. Please note that the figures we have mentioned are based on general media reports and might not be reflecting the actual costs the day you are reading the article. For getting the right information, please consult with a doctor recruiter. We could connect you to one in a short time.



Alliance Recruitment Agency

Alliance Recruitment Agency is among the most trusted doctor recruitment agencies for hundreds of hospitals worldwide. Our global manpower agency has become a doctor recruiter partner that can be reached anytime, 24/7. You need not worry about finding doctors on short notice or hiring locum tenens to fill temporary positions. We let you know about the exact costs based on authoritative sources and deep industry research about doctor staffing done over 11+ years. Our doctor recruiters are highly experienced and trained to make doctor staffing more streamlined, cost-efficient, and systematic. If you are looking for a doctor recruiter, find one who could serve you through a highly customized approach. Contact us for more details!


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