Physician Hiring Challenges Persist as Recruitment Budgets Decline, AAPPR Report Finds

Data Spanning 21,000+ Healthcare Locations Shows Persistent Physician Vacancies and Lengthy Hiring Timelines

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment (AAPPR) has released its annual Physician and Provider Recruitment Benchmarking Report: Search Dynamics and Trends, offering new insights into physician and advanced practice provider (APP) recruitment activity across the United States.

The 2026 report shows that physician and provider search volume held roughly steady in 2025 following earlier highs, while recruitment teams continue to face significant workloads, lengthy hiring timelines and persistent physician vacancies. The typical organization managed 100 searches in 2025, compared with a peak of 115 in 2023. Recruiters individually managed a median of 36.5 searches, essentially unchanged from 35.6 in 2024. Meanwhile, the median annual budget for internal physician recruitment departments declined 7.4% year over year, from $553,376 in 2024 to $512,500 in 2025.

"We're watching the physician shortage move from concern to reality," said Carey Goryl, CEO of AAPPR. "Without meaningful changes to how we train and recruit physicians, patients will feel this first as longer waits for critical care increase. Our data shows that searches in high‑impact specialties like cardiology, urology, neurology, anesthesiology, and gastroenterology are increasingly difficult to fill. This is a clear warning sign that our physician pipeline isn't keeping up."

The research includes data on more than 10,000 physician and provider searches active in 2025 from recruitment teams that collectively recruit for more than 21,000 unique healthcare locations. Nearly 60% of reported searches were for physicians.

Notable findings from the 2026 AAPPR Physician and Provider Recruitment Benchmarking Report include:

• APP recruitment timelines improved, while physician searches remain lengthy: Median time to fill for APP searches declined from 80 days in 2024 to 65 days in 2025. Physician searches took a median of 119 days, with significant variation by specialty. Endocrinology/Metabolism took the longest at a median of 321 days, followed by Oncology at 244 days.
• A signed contract is only part of the recruitment timeline: The typical physician began work 229 days after the position was posted, highlighting the additional time required for credentialing, privileging, licensing and onboarding.
• Family Medicine leads physician search demand: Family Medicine accounted for 11.6% of physician searches in 2025, followed by Hospital Medicine at 10.9% and general OB/GYN at 6.6%.
• Share of physician searches remaining open continues to rise: As of Dec. 31, 2025, 50% of physician searches remained open, up from 49% in 2024 and 47% in 2023. By comparison, 31.8% of APP searches remained open at the end of 2025.
• Several specialties proved particularly difficult to fill: By the end of 2025, 28.3% of urology searches were filled, while only about one-third of neurology and cardiology searches were filled. Anesthesia (40.1%) and gastroenterology (40.5%) searches were also filled less than half of the time.

The industry-level data equips healthcare organizations with benchmarks to evaluate recruitment performance, resources and workforce planning strategies. Participants in the survey gain complimentary access to the AAPPR Benchmarking Portal, which includes advanced search tools, time-to-fill and compensation calculators, and customizable benchmarking capabilities. 

The complete 2026 AAPPR Physician and Provider Recruitment Benchmarking Report: Search Dynamics and Trends is available for purchase online. The companion 2026 AAPPR Recruitment Team Professional Compensation Benchmarking Report is also available, providing additional insight into recruiter compensation and recruitment team structures. To access AAPPR benchmarking research and resources, visit www.aappr.org/research/benchmarking.

About The Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment (AAPPR)
The Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment (AAPPR) is the mission-aligned authority on addressing clinical workforce shortages and expanding access to care. For more than 30 years, AAPPR has connected and supported physician and provider recruitment professionals who serve as strategic partners within hospitals and health systems nationwide. Today, AAPPR represents over 2,700 members. Fully integrated into their organizations, AAPPR members lead the full recruitment continuum, designing hiring, onboarding, and retention strategies that mitigate vacancy impacts and strengthen care delivery. Guided by our RECRUIT values – Respect, Equity, Collaboration, Responsibility, Understanding, Inclusion, and Trust – AAPPR and its members cultivate a diverse, data-informed workforce dedicated to ensuring equitable access to care. To learn more or to become an organizational member of AAPPR, please visit https://aappr.org/join-now.

SOURCE Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment