How to hire an acute care physician

Acute care physician hiring summary. Here are some key points about hiring acute care physicians in the United States:

There are currently 147,069 acute care physicians in the US, as well as 118,621 job openings.
Acute care physicians are in the highest demand in New York, NY, with 16 current job openings.
The median cost to hire an acute care physician is $1,633.
It takes between 36 and 42 days to fill the average role in the US.
Human Resources use 15% of their expenses on recruitment on average.
On average, it takes around 12 weeks for a new acute care physician to become settled and show total productivity levels at work.

How to hire an acute care physician, step by step

To hire an acute care physician, you should clearly understand the skills and experience you are looking for in a candidate, and allocate a budget for the position. You will also need to post and promote the job opening to reach potential candidates. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to hire an acute care physician:

Here's a step-by-step acute care physician hiring guide:

Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
Step 3: Make a budget
Step 4: Write an acute care physician job description
Step 5: Post your job
Step 6: Interview candidates
Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new acute care physician
Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does an acute care physician do?

An acute care physician is responsible for providing quality care services for the patients, diagnosing them, and administering medications. These physicians have the same duties as regular physicians, usually working for patients with a short-term illness or those patients recovered from medical conditions that require ongoing treatment and medications. Acute care physicians monitor patients' medical histories, scheduling follow-up checkups, as well as other procedures. They should have excellent communication and organizational skills, and most importantly, the knowledge of the medical industry within their expertise.

Learn more about the specifics of what an acute care physician does

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Identify your hiring needs

First, determine the employments status of the acute care physician you need to hire. Certain acute care physician roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

Determine employee vs contractor status

Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them an acute care physician to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire an acute care physician that fits the bill.

This list shows salaries for various types of acute care physicians.

Type of Acute Care Physician	Description	Hourly rate
Acute Care Physician	Physicians and surgeons diagnose and treat injuries or illnesses. Physicians examine patients; take medical histories; prescribe medications; and order, perform, and interpret diagnostic tests... Show more	$67-163
Family Practice MD	A family practice MD is responsible for monitoring and diagnosing patients' conditions of all ages. Family practice MDs identify the patients' medical histories and administer treatment plans and medications... Show more	$76-292
Medical Doctor	A Medical Doctor, also known as a physician, is a healthcare professional who diagnoses and treats patients from injuries and illnesses. As a Medical Doctor, your day-to-day duties will typically include assessing a patient's symptoms, prescribing and administering treatment to patients, and providing follow-up medical care to patients... Show more	$45-166

Create an ideal candidate profile
Common skills:
- Patients
- Family Practice
- Internal Medicine
- Epic
- Medical Care
- ICU
- Suturing
- Surgery
- DOT
- Acls
- Rehabilitation
- Urgent Care
- Pediatrics
- CPR
Check all skills
Responsibilities:
- Gain experience managing patients with cardiopulmonary, post-surgical orthopedic, post-traumatic, and metabolic conditions
- Pursue exposure to ICU, NICU and orthopedic surgery.
- Evaluate and analyze patients' medical charts, physical and mental abilities to determine realistic rehabilitation goals for patients.
- Collect patient's health information before having surgery.
- Analyze procedures and diagnoses using ICD-9 & CPT codes.
- Rotate in rheumatology, medicine, pediatrics, neurology.
More acute care physician duties

Make a budget

Including a salary range in your acute care physician job description is a great way to entice the best and brightest candidates. An acute care physician salary can vary based on several factors:

Location. For example, acute care physicians' average salary in hawaii is 39% less than in vermont.
Seniority. Entry-level acute care physicians earn 59% less than senior-level acute care physicians.
Certifications. An acute care physician with a few certifications under their belt will likely demand a higher salary.
Company. Working for a prestigious company or an exciting start-up can make a huge difference in an acute care physician's salary.

Average acute care physician salary

$219,416yearly

$105.49 hourly rate

Entry-level acute care physician salary

$141,000 yearly salary

Updated January 23, 2026

Average acute care physician salary by state

Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
1	North Dakota	$270,976	$130
2	Washington	$261,681	$126
3	Alabama	$238,892	$115
4	Kansas	$236,807	$114
5	Illinois	$235,649	$113
6	West Virginia	$230,960	$111
7	Maine	$229,499	$110
8	Michigan	$227,524	$109
9	Pennsylvania	$226,029	$109
10	Missouri	$225,007	$108
11	Minnesota	$222,901	$107
12	South Carolina	$221,562	$107
13	California	$219,976	$106
14	South Dakota	$217,338	$104
15	Oklahoma	$216,234	$104
16	Oregon	$215,399	$104
17	Wisconsin	$214,600	$103
18	Georgia	$206,441	$99
19	Colorado	$205,574	$99
20	Arizona	$199,568	$96

Average acute care physician salary by company

Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
1	Freeman Health System	$272,456	$130.99	5
2	Alameda Health System	$271,236	$130.40	33
3	Scripps Health	$268,738	$129.20	20
4	Dignity Health	$260,070	$125.03	243
5	Mayo Clinic	$259,927	$124.96	352
6	Oregon Medical Group	$255,289	$122.74
7	OSF HealthCare	$254,034	$122.13	276
8	Fairview Health Services	$250,163	$120.27	125
9	Carbon	$249,481	$119.94
10	Community Health Systems	$247,066	$118.78	87
11	Pikeville Medical Center	$246,837	$118.67
12	Children's Wisconsin	$243,919	$117.27	2
13	Franciscan Health	$242,221	$116.45	123
14	Agrace	$241,483	$116.10	3
15	Beaumont Health	$241,279	$116.00
16	Providence Health & Services	$240,783	$115.76	572
17	Southcoast Health	$239,942	$115.36	17
18	Kaiser Permanente	$239,912	$115.34	228
19	McLeod Health	$239,518	$115.15	49
20	Asante	$238,992	$114.90	27

Writing an acute care physician job description
A good acute care physician job description should include a few things:
- Summary of the role
- List of responsibilities
- Required skills and experience
Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of an acute care physician job description:
Acute care physician job description example

Orlando Regional Medical Center (ORMC) is an 808-bed hospital in downtown Orlando and the flagship medical center of Orlando Health. For over 100 years, ORMC has provided the most advanced options available for surgical, medical, rehabilitative, and emergency care. Today, through our state-of-the-art technology and leading medical specialists, we provide a comprehensive continuum of care for trauma, heart, vascular, stroke, neuroscience, oncology, surgery, and orthopedic patients.

Additionally, ORMC provides diagnostic and laboratory testing, medical and surgical services, intensive and progressive care, and wound management. Our numerous specialty centers include treatment for memory disorder and epilepsy, the Orlando Health Rehabilitation Institute (OHRI), the esteemed Brain Injury Rehabilitation Program (BIRC), outpatient surgery services, and an inpatient acute rehabilitation program at the ORMC North Tower.

Award-winning Level One Trauma Center:

ORMC is proud to be home to Central Florida's only Level One Trauma Center, which sees more than 85,000 patients per year including 3,400 major trauma cases. ORMC's life-saving surgical and medical care is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

ORMC also recently received full Atrial Fibrillation with Electrophysiology Services (EPS) Accreditation status from the SCPC, one of only two hospitals in Florida and the only one in Central Florida to achieve this designation.

Emergency Air Transport:

ORMC is also home to the area's only air ambulance service. The Air Care Team, founded in 1985, is comprised of three medical helicopters that service a 90-mile radius that includes 10 counties in Central Florida. Since its inception, the Air Care Team has flown over 19,000 patients and 1.2 million accident-free miles on their rescue and transport missions

Graduate Medical Education:

One of the state's six major teaching hospitals, ORMC offers seven residency programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education: Emergency Medicine, Internal Medicine, OB-GYN, Orthopedic Surgery, Pathology, Pediatrics and Surgical Education.

ORMC also offers 10 fellowship programs: Administrative/Research, Emergency Medical Services, Ultrasound, Hematology/Oncology, Pediatric Orthopedics, Orthopedic Trauma, Pediatric Sports Medicine, Colon Rectal Surgery, Surgical Critical Care and Surgical Trauma. Medical students from universities across the country, including Florida State University, University of Florida, and University of South Florida, come to ORMC to complete their medical education and training. For more information, visit our Graduate Medical Education portal.
PandoLogic. Keywords: Physician, Location: Orlando, FL - 32806
Post your job
To find the right acute care physician for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:
- Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
- Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with acute care physicians they would recommend.
- Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit acute care physicians who meet your education requirements.
- Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.
Post your job online:
- Post your acute care physician job on Zippia to find and attract quality acute care physician candidates.
- Use niche websites such as healthcarejobsite, health jobs nationwide, hospitalcareers, medreps.com.
- Post a job on free websites.
Interview candidates
During your first interview to recruit acute care physicians, engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. During the following interview, you'll be able to go into more detail about the company, the position, and the responsibilities.
You should also ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match the ideal candidate profile you developed earlier. Candidates good enough for the next step can complete the technical interview.
The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.
Send a job offer and onboard your new acute care physician
Once you've selected the best acute care physician candidate for the job, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, this letter should include details about the benefits and perks you offer the candidate. Ensuring that your offer is competitive is essential, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and you should be open to discussion. After you reach an agreement, the final step is formalizing the agreement with a contract.
It's also important to follow up with applicants who do not get the job with an email letting them know that the position is filled.
To prepare for the new acute care physician first day, you should share an onboarding schedule with them that covers their first period on the job. You should also quickly complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Finally, Human Resources must ensure a new employee file is created for internal record keeping.
Go through the hiring process checklist
- Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
- Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
- Define job responsibilities and requirements
- Establish budget and timeline
- Determine hiring decision makers for the role
- Write job description
- Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
- Promote the job internally
- Process applications through applicant tracking system
- Review resumes and cover letters
- Shortlist candidates for screening
- Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
- Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
- Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
- Conduct background checks on top candidates
- Check references of top candidates
- Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
- Extend offer to top candidate(s)
- Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
- Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
- Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
- Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)
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How much does it cost to hire an acute care physician?

Before you start to hire acute care physicians, it pays to consider both the one-off costs like recruitment, job promotion, and onboarding, as well as the ongoing costs of an employee's salary and benefits. While most companies that hire acute care physicians pay close attention to the initial cost of hiring, ongoing costs are much more significant in the long run.

The median annual salary for acute care physicians is $219,416 in the US. However, the cost of acute care physician hiring can vary a lot depending on location. Additionally, hiring an acute care physician for contract work or on a per-project basis typically costs between $67 and $163 an hour.

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How to hire an Acute Care Physician

Updated January 23, 2026

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How to hire an acute care physician