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How to hire a Physician

Physician hiring summary. Here are some key points about hiring physicians in the United States:

  • There are a total of 175,449 physicians in the US, and there are currently 46,489 job openings in this field.
  • The median cost to hire a physician is $1,633.
  • Small businesses spend $1,105 per physician on training each year, while large companies spend $658.
  • It takes between 36 and 42 days to fill the average role in the US.
  • It takes approximately 12 weeks for a new employee to reach full productivity levels.
  • HR departments typically allocate 15% of their budget towards recruitment efforts.
  • New York, NY, has the highest demand for physicians, with 234 job openings.

How to hire a physician, step by step

To hire a physician, you need to identify the specific skills and experience you want in a candidate, allocate a budget for the position, and advertise the job opening to attract potential candidates. To hire a physician, you should follow these steps:

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

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

What does a Physician do?

Physicians' general responsibility is to check, diagnose, and treat a patient's condition to improve their overall wellness. A physician could be General Practitioners or Specialist Physicians, wherein General Practitioners are physicians who provide regular checkups for patients depending on their needs and refer them to a Specialist Physicians who are more skilled in a particular field of expertise for a thorough diagnosis. Physicians monitor a patient's medical history and ensure follow-up checkups to observe if the condition of a patient is changing over time. A physician may refer a patient to other health professionals for further examination as needed.

Learn more about the specifics of what a physician does
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  1. Identify your hiring needs

    The physician hiring process starts by determining what type of worker you actually need. Certain roles might require a full-time employee, whereas part-time workers or contractors can do others.

    Determine Employee vs Contractor Status
    Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

    Hiring the perfect physician also involves considering the ideal background you'd like them to have. Depending on what industry or field they have experience in, they'll bring different skills to the job. It's also important to consider what levels of seniority and education the job requires and what kind of salary such a candidate would likely demand.

    The following list breaks down different types of physicians and their corresponding salaries.

    Type Of PhysicianDescriptionHourly Rate
    PhysicianPhysicians 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$61-212
    DoctorA doctor is a medical expert who diagnoses and treats illnesses and injuries, often specializing in particular areas. Their responsibilities revolve around conducting initial interviews and examinations, studying a patient's medical history and laboratory results, providing consultations and care advice, prescribing medication, and referring patients to specialists when necessary... Show More$50-196
    Family Practice DoctorFamily practice doctors provide lifelong care for a patient and their family. They offer medical attention to all family members, educates patients on disease prevention, provide health maintenance, and ensure mental and emotional needs are met... Show More$48-165
  2. Create an ideal candidate profile

    Common Skills:
    • Patients
    • Surgery
    • Patient Care
    • Internal Medicine
    • Primary Care
    • EMR
    • Rehabilitation
    • Family Practice
    • Urgent Care
    • Emergency Medicine
    • Diagnosis
    • Medical Care
    • Oncology
    • Obstetrics
    Check All Skills
    Responsibilities:
    • Manage catheters and dress wounds.
    • Maintain ACLS and BLS certifications.
    • Treat complicated oncology cases in ICU and emergency.
    • Schedule new, follow-up and diagnostic testing for cardiology patients.
    • Attend radiation oncology clinic for new patients beginning treatment as well as follow-ups for returning patients.
    • Schedule tests and procedures (including radiology, cardiology, and respiratory) utilizing the hospital and clinic computer systems.
    More Physician duties
  3. Make a budget

    Including a salary range in the physician job description is a good way to get more applicants. A physician salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

    For example, the average salary for a physician in New Jersey may be lower than in Wisconsin, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level physician. Additionally, a physician with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

    Average physician salary

    $238,887yearly

    $114.85 hourly rate

    Entry-level physician salary
    $128,000 yearly salary
    Updated February 12, 2025

    Average physician salary by state

    RankStateAvg. SalaryHourly Rate
    1Tennessee$301,729$145
    2Wisconsin$300,885$145
    3Kentucky$300,733$145
    4South Carolina$300,122$144
    5Mississippi$297,796$143
    6Minnesota$297,699$143
    7Indiana$296,196$142
    8Iowa$295,943$142
    9North Dakota$293,310$141
    10Arkansas$292,019$140
    11North Carolina$284,900$137
    12Florida$282,289$136
    13Oklahoma$279,994$135
    14Georgia$275,774$133
    15Nebraska$275,029$132
    16Virginia$272,601$131
    17Ohio$267,912$129
    18Pennsylvania$263,537$127
    19Kansas$262,713$126
    20Michigan$260,735$125

    Average physician salary by company

  4. Writing a Physician Job Description

    A job description for a physician role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a physician job description:

    Physician job description example

    **Quick Apply Job. Takes less than 1 minute.**

    Located in Suburban Kansas City, AdventHealth Shawnee Mission is searching for a highly skilled fellowship trained breast surgeon, to join our dedicated team of experts.

    AdventHealth Shawnee Mission, a not-for-profit, faith-based hospital that consistently ranks as one of the highest-quality and most preferred hospitals in the Kansas City metropolitan area. AdventHealth Shawnee Mission (AHSM), a member of AdventHealth System, is a 504-bed facility that has 20,000 inpatient admissions and more than 200,000 outpatient admissions annually.

    The Cancer Center at AdventHealth Shawnee Mission opened in 2014. Our team today consists of Medical and Radiation Oncology, Gynecologic-Oncology Surgeons, Dedicated Breast Surgeons, and other specialists all working together to create an individualized treatment plan for each patient. AdventHealth Shawnee Mission is the only certified member of MD Anderson Cancer Network , a program of MD Anderson Cancer Center, in Kansas City.

    The Cancer program has on-site radiation, an infusion center, and a PET/CT scanner that provides advanced imaging and treatment planning. Our breast program is NAPBC accredited and the Breast Center is an ACR Center of Excellence.

    We believe patient care is best delivered in a multidisciplinary approach. Our team works closely with our dedicated surgeons, pathologists, pharmacists, psychologists, social workers, and genetic counselors. This collaboration allows for following best practice and delivering quality care to our patients. There are weekly multidisciplinary tumor conferences and frequent interactions with MD Anderson physicians to further enhance patient care and outcomes.

    Our candidate must be well-trained, completed a fellowship in breast surgery, and able to work in a fast-paced environment. Respect for patients, co-workers and staff is of the utmost priority, and we place a considerable focus on providing an exceptional experience for our patients.


    We are an equal opportunity employer and do not tolerate discrimination based on race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, age or disability/handicap with respect to recruitment, selection, placement, promotion, wages, benefits and other terms and conditions of employment.
  5. Post your job

    To find the right 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 physicians they would recommend.
    • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit 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 physician job on Zippia to find and attract quality physician candidates.
    • Use niche websites such as healthcarejobsite, health jobs nationwide, hospitalcareers, medreps.com.
    • Post a job on free websites.
  6. Interview candidates

    To successfully recruit physicians, your first interview needs to engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. You can go into more detail about the company, the role, and the responsibilities during follow-up interviews.

    It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match your ideal candidate profile. If you think a candidate is good enough for the next step, you can move on to the technical interview.

    The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

  7. Send a job offer and onboard your new physician

    Once you've found the physician candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

    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.

    After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new physician. Human Resources and the hiring manager should complete Employee Action Forms. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are created.

  8. 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 a physician?

Before you start to hire 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 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 physicians is $238,887 in the US. However, the cost of physician hiring can vary a lot depending on location. Additionally, hiring a physician for contract work or on a per-project basis typically costs between $61 and $212 an hour.

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