Urgent Care Physician Vacancies Get Filled Faster, According to Study

The main focus of a new study just released by ECG Management Consultants may be physician compensation, but buried within the data is an interesting fact about the physician job market. Whereas between 64% and 100% of open physician positions took at least 6 months to fill in four out of five categories, depending on the specialty measured, only 20% of open positions went unfilled for that long in urgent care (the fifth category). ECG’s Physician Compensation Survey reflects more than 41,000 providers in 150+ physician specialties and 20 types of advance practice providers. Focusing as it does on compensation, much of the analysis dissects why the numbers were flat for primary care providers compared with 2016 (specialists saw a 2% bump, on average). The authors suggest that flat or increased compensation for providers, coupled with a low median work relative value unit (WRVU), indicates an organization is focused more on clinical quality than on volume. According to the survey, WRVU fell 2% for PCPs and 2.1% for specialists.