Physician, Executive Search, and Higher Education Recruitment

Jordan Search Consultants is a St. Louis-based healthcare, executive, and higher education search firm serving clients nationwide. Our executive search specialists and healthcare recruitment experts have almost a century of combined experience in the industry. We partner with client organizations throughout the U.S. to fill the following positions:

Physicians
Organizational Leadership
Healthcare Executives
Physician Leaders
Nursing Leadership
Higher Education Faculty and University Leadership
Advanced Practitioners

Jordan Search Consultants provides the best recruitment services to both clients and candidates by building dynamic and effective teams in a variety of settings. We achieve this through:

Integrity, professionalism, and persistence
A streamlined, strategic approach to recruitment
Customized recruitment solutions
Services that range from candidate sourcing to complete turnkey solutions

About You

Is your organization seeking access to top talent?
Does your organization want to enhance retention rates?
Is maximizing recruitment effectiveness a priority?
Do you seek candidates who fit your organization’s unique corporate culture?

Is your organization a:

Integrated Health System/Hospital?
Medical Group?
Academic Institution?
IPA, ACO, HMO, Health Plan?
Nonprofit (Hospice, FQHC, Community Health Center)?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’re in the right place. When you partner with Jordan Search Consultants, our expert consultants become a part of your recruitment team. And, our ability to customize recruitment solutions to fit your evolving staffing needs provides you with a distinct competitive advantage.

A Few Recent Placement Successes

Healthcare Providers

SIU School of Medicine
Associate Provost of Finance and Administration
Assistant Professor of Cardiology
Assistant Professor of Endocrinology
Psychiatrist
Endocrinologist
Springfield, IL

Sentara Medical Group
Orthopedic Surgeon
Harrisonburg, VA

Texas Tech University Health System
Neurologist
El Paso, TX

Executive

Springfield Clinic
Director of Clinical Research
Springfield, IL

Infinity Hospice
Executive Director
Reno, NV

Absolute Care
Medical Director
Greenbelt, MD

Absolute Care
National Director of Behavioral Health
Baltimore, MD

Are your recruitment strategies working to drive revenue?

If not, we can help. Fill out the form to connect with us and receive a free recruitment assessment for your organization.

Or call us at 866-750-7231.

The Importance of Empowering Female Healthcare Providers

By Kathy Jordan

As the founder and CEO of Jordan Search Consultants, I know firsthand that women bring unique and innovative leadership skills to all professions, including that of healthcare. In fact, having women in the highest ranks of leadership directly correlates with increased organizational profitability. And although the gender ratio is starting to shift toward a more balanced distribution in the world of healthcare, there is still much that needs to be done in order to encourage and equip female providers to continue to pursue careers and leadership paths in medicine.

In 2017, the number of females entering medical school surpassed the number of male enrollees for the first time. As more women physicians, Nurse Practitioners (NPs), and Physician Assistants (PAs) enter the traditionally male-dominated field of healthcare, organizations must recognize and respond to their particular needs. By advocating for women in the healthcare industry, and taking steps to support and enable their success, forward-thinking organizations will reap the benefit of building a strong workforce that is inherently well-equipped to navigate the collaborative nature of the evolving healthcare landscape and address the challenges of current and future physician shortages.

Only about one-third of physicians in practice now are female. However, when the current classes of medical students finish residency in a few years, the majority of new physicians will be female. Currently, women physicians do not receive the same pay (and they often do not receive the same respect) as their male counterparts, despite producing better outcomes. These inequalities undoubtedly contribute to the higher rates of disengagement and burnout of female physicians. To recruit and retain more women doctors, healthcare organizations must implement hiring policies and work environments that recognize their value in a supportive and substantial way. This includes committing to salary transparency and less pay disparity, providing leadership and growth opportunities (including mentor relationships), creating systems that allow for more flexible work schedules, supplying access to supportive professional communities, and offering better maternity leave policies and childcare options to encourage work-life balance and decrease burnout.

In addition to the increasing number of female physicians entering the healthcare workforce, there are currently more than 270,000 licensed NPs in the U.S. The vast majority (88%) of NPs are female. The role of Physician Assistant, one of the fastest-growing jobs in the U.S., is also predominantly filled by women. With current physicians facing increased patient loads and more administrative burdens, NPs and PAs have stepped in to fill the gap by taking on more responsibilities. By partnering with physicians as part of a team, they are able to provide much-needed primary care services to patients. Not only does this arrangement help decrease patient wait time, research has also shown that when women are part of a group, collaboration, collective intelligence, and overall performance of the team increases. Additionally, women are often inherently stronger in soft skills such as empathy and are able to ensure a patient feels heard and cared for. One study showed that 65 percent of patient satisfaction was linked to empathetic communication during their visit – an important consideration in the ongoing shift to value-based models of care.

Clearly, women bring unique and valuable skills to the field of healthcare, including the ability to engage with patients, improve care, and support collaborative innovation. But more must be done to encourage and support their career and leadership goals, and fairly compensate them for their work. By working to empower female providers in meaningful ways, organizations will also equip themselves for future success.

If you’d like to learn more about how to support and advocate for female providers in your organization, call 866-750-7231 or email me here.

The Negative Effects of Physician Administrative Tasks on Patient Care, Satisfaction, and Wait Times

The widespread implementation of electronic medical record (EMR) systems (also known as electronic health records or EHRs) and an increased patient population have given rise to heavier workloads and more administrative burdens on today’s healthcare providers. In addition to increased stress on physicians, this reality has also had negative effects on patient care, satisfaction, and wait times.

The hours physicians spend on administrative tasks is significant. A recent report showed that physicians now spend the majority of their time on electronic paperwork and far less time face-to-face with their patients. When patient-provider visits are shortened, the quality of care a provider is able to offer suffers. It becomes more difficult to have meaningful conversations about a patient’s mental and emotional health, or to explore the possibilities and merits of lifestyle changes to address or mitigate health issues.

Another side effect of the overwhelming amount of required notes and documentation is an increased risk of burnout. One study found that physicians who reported not having enough time to complete EMR documentation were almost three times as likely to show symptoms of burnout. When physicians experience burnout, it interferes with their ability to provide quality care to their patients. Burnout often manifests as depersonalization, or detached feelings, toward patients. And when a provider is unable to demonstrate empathy, patient satisfaction decreases.

Inefficiencies in an organization’s office or operational procedures also exacerbate the problem of heavy administrative burdens – and lead to longer patient wait times. When patients experience long delays before they see a provider, satisfaction levels plummet. Dissatisfaction with wait times has been shown to negatively affect patients’ perception of their entire experience, including the quality of care provided by physicians and other caregivers.

Streamlining organizational operations and eliminating inefficiencies has been shown to ease administrative burdens, decrease wait times, and increase patient satisfaction. One healthcare provider significantly decreased patient wait times by implementing a “lean” process in their office. This included identifying wasted time, areas for improvement, addressing bottlenecks, and reallocating some administrative tasks to non-physician staff members. As a result of adopting this methodology, they saw an 85% decrease in patient wait times.

While electronic medical records (and the administrative tasks and time they require) are here to stay, organizations can mitigate the negative effects on patients by redistributing the administrative workload, examining and adjusting office procedures to increase efficiency, and implementing tactics to make wait times less onerous for patients. Doing so will benefit physicians, patients, and the health of the organization.

If you’re looking for the right healthcare candidates to equip your organization to succeed, Jordan Search Consultants can help. Email us or give us a call at 866-750-7231.

Leveraging Hiring Incentives in Physician Recruitment

The effects of the current and looming physician shortage are readily apparent in the healthcare industry. When it comes to physician availability, patients aren’t the only ones struggling to find a provider. Healthcare organizations are also finding it difficult to hire the most desirable physicians due to an extremely competitive environment – especially when it comes to primary care physicians. In addition to offering attractive base salaries, it has become commonplace for organizations to include hiring incentives in order to procure the best candidates.

According to a 2018 report by the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), compensation for primary care providers rose more than 10% in the previous five years, almost double the increase seen in specialty fields. The report, which used data from over 136,000 providers across the United States, showed median earnings of $257,726 for primary care physicians, and $425,136 for specialists. Organizations must stay abreast of current compensation trends for the positions they wish to fill – to attract the best candidates, offering a competitive salary is paramount. In addition to specialty, geographic location is an important variable when determining compensation. The top-earning states for physicians are Indiana, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Wisconsin, and Nevada, while the lowest-earning states are Michigan, Massachusetts, Hawaii, New Mexico, and Maryland. In most industries, urban areas offer higher salaries, but that’s not always true in healthcare. For example, the median income for an anesthesiologist in a non-metro area (defined as an area with a population of 50,000 or less) was $469,057, nearly $25,000 more than the median income of anesthesiologists located in urban areas. With some exceptions, most specialists in rural locations can expect to make more than their urban counterparts. Specialty, geographic region, and location all play a part in determining what constitutes an attractive and competitive compensation offer.

When recruiting physicians, examples of typical incentive offerings include a signing bonus, continuing medical education (CME) support or reimbursement, and a relocation allowance. According to MGMA’s DataDive Provider Compensation database, which represents 147,000 providers in a variety of specialties, the most recent median signing bonus for a family physician without an obstetrics certification was $28,000, the median amount for CME support was $2,750, and relocation allowance was $7,050. For physicians specializing in internal medicine, the median values were as follows: a signing bonus of $20,000, CME support of $3,500, and a relocation allowance of $7,800. While these numbers reflect the median values of various specialties, we’ve also seen signing bonus amounts of up to $50,000 and relocation allowances ranging from $10,000 to $20,000, depending on the specialty and the desirability of the candidate.

Organizations who wish to hire a resident or fellow once they complete their training may offer a monthly stipend as a hiring incentive. Typically, a monthly stipend offer is contingent on an early signing commitment and can range from $1,500 to $3,500 per month for the remainder of their training. When it comes to recruiting younger candidates right out of residency, loan repayment programs are also a very desirable incentive. According to the American Association of Medical Colleges, the median amount of loan debt for recent medical school graduates was $200,000. Typically, organizations will pay a monthly or yearly sum toward loan repayment in exchange for the candidate working full-time for an agreed-upon amount of time. One example: When seeking physicians to fill rural job openings, Banner Health, a nonprofit healthcare system, offered $100,000 in loan repayments over five years. Some healthcare systems also offer a retention bonus where the physician receives an agreed-upon amount ($25,000, for example) after each year of service to an organization.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to determine the best hiring incentives and amounts; much depends on the type of position, organizational resources, geographic location, and the individual candidate. At Jordan Search Consultants, we spend time getting to know the organizations we recruit for – and the candidates we recruit so that we can help develop innovative recruitment packages that attract the best candidates. For help and insight on finding and hiring the right provider for your organization, email us or give us a call at 866-750-7231.

Meet Our Team

Kathy Jordan

Founder and CEO
Kristin Koppen

Vice President of Executive Search
DJ Larson

Chief Operating Officer
Matt Jordan

Senior Search Consultant

Jordan Search Consultants provides superior professionalism and diplomacy in tackling difficult executive and physician searches. Knowing that you have experts working on your behalf in such a dynamic industry is very reassuring.

Les Jebson, Administrator, Southern Illinois University, School of Medicine, Springfield, IL

We are able to attract good people who in turn do good work that gets recognized. Jordan Search Consultants has been essential to this, and I believe we have a relationship that is built on more than business. JSC knows who we are and, because of that, we trust their judgement.

Kevin Dorsey, MD, Dean and Provost (2001-2015), Southern Illinois University, School of Medicine, Springfield, IL

Our mission is to build quality teams that have an impact on the communities they serve for our client organizations. We do this by providing professional, responsive and collaborative service to ensure the best possible recruitment outcomes.

Kathy Jordan, President, Jordan Search Consultants

After talking with several leading recruitment firms about growing our medical group by 50%, Jordan Search Consultants was the only one to truly listen, understand our unique needs, and develop an effective solution. Together, we were able to not only recruit 24 providers within 6 months, but also to significantly reduce our recruiting costs. Their ability to adjust staffing, specialty focus, and monthly pricing allowed us the flexibility we needed to meet our ever-changing needs. Having a reliable recruiting partner has allowed our health system to reach strategic goals far ahead of schedule.

William Kohut, Former Provider Recruitment Director, Southwest Washington Medical Center, Vancouver, WA

After trying unsuccessfully with three other recruiting firms for several years to fill a specific practice position, Jordan Search Consultants was recommended to us. From the outset, it was clear that we had found a recruiter who could perform. Almost immediately we had not one, but two highly-qualified, viable candidates. JSC’s ability to represent us professionally and clearly define our opportunity to prospective candidates was a critical factor in the successful recruitment. I recommend Jordan Search Consultants to any organization looking for a reliable recruitment partner to assist them in maintaining a competitive edge.

Bradley Houser, Administrator, St. Luke’s Cataract and Laser Institute, Tarpon Springs, FL

Our experience with Jordan Search Consultants has been very positive with A+ results. We have very specific, specialized positions and we needed to partner with a firm that not only understood the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry but also our unique business model. JSC has surpassed our expectations and met the challenge to identify quality candidates that matched our specified criteria. Meeting our strategic goals is critical and they operated with a sense of urgency and persistence while at the same time consulting with us regarding industry trends and expectations. If you are looking for an executive search firm to assist with your critical searches and represent you in a professional manner, I highly recommend Jordan Search Consultants.

Vice President, Human Resources, Leading National Healthcare/Pharmaceutical Organization

The candidate sourcing concept was new to our group and generated great candidates. The search consultant from Jordan Search who managed our project was readily available and we received monthly updates on the status of the search. Candidate sourcing has been very helpful since none of our physicians or staff have the time to do this the way it should be done.

Irene Heinemeier, FACMPE, Chief Operating Officer, Urology Nevada, Reno, NV

Matt Jordan was honest and easy to work with; I would definitely consider a candidate from Jordan Search Consultants’ Career Placement Solutions in the future.

Tom Leeds, Director, Medical Staff Recruiting, Mercy, Toledo, Ohio

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