Healthcare and Hospital Systems Among Leaders For Job Growth Companies

CnnMoney.com is touting the 10 "Best Companies For Job Growth" today. Among their 10 are 3 medical systems. Just goes to show that hospital jobs, whether they are physician jobs, nursing jobs or other medical jobs are in high demand and growing.

Here are the 3 on their list:

6. Scripps Health

Job growth: 15%
U.S. employees: 11,444
2010 Best Companies rank: 40

The San Diego-based hospital system has been growing its workforce consistently over the last few years as the industry overall has flourished along with Scripps itself, thanks to cutting edge programs like robotics surgery and human genetics research.

Scripps currently has about 400 positions open for registered nurses, imaging techs, laboratory and pharmacy staff as well as clerical and support staff. As a large corporation with expanding businesses, Scripps is also recruiting managers and professionals in accounting, finance, information technology, human resources, compliance, biomedical and quality assurance.

8. Children's Healthcare of Atlanta

Job growth: 13%
U.S. employees: 6,536
2010 Best Companies rank: 74

The only children's hospital in Atlanta has grown tremendously, mostly because of a population explosion in the area. "There are just more and more kids to take care of," said Linda Matzigkeit, senior vice president of strategic planning and human resources.

After completing a major expansion last year, the health care provider bulked up its staff of doctors, nurses and nurse practitioners. Matzigkeit says there are plans to add about 30 more physicians and another 50 to 75 nurses this year. In a move to go paperless, technology jobs are also on the rise. "We'll probably add another 40 to 50 in technology in 2010," she said.

10. Meridian Health

Job growth: 12%
U.S. employees: 21,303
2010 Best Companies rank: 79

This central New Jersey-based hospital system showed some healthy job growth last year, in part because of a $300 million expansion at its flagship Jersey Shore University Medical Center. But the entire Meridian system is also expanding in the months ahead as patient volume remains on the rise.

Plans are already in the works to merge with another New Jersey hospital and further grow the Meridian partner sites, which include ambulance services, physicians' practices, occupational health sites, surgery centers and diagnostic imaging. The bulk of the jobs available will be for nurses, pharmacists, therapists, assistants as well as housekeeping, maintenance and food service, according to John Sindoni, senior vice president of human resources.

Top Blogs & Digital Edition

Well our little blog here was named to “Top 50 Blogs for Job Seekers in the Healthcare Field” by the folks at Healthy Hitting:

"Physician Jobs and Healthcare Careers: Learn more about becoming a doctor, as well as other jobs in healthcare. Includes jobs open to physicians."

It's an honor to be recognized for our effort to bring news and information on medical jobs and physician jobs.

Additionally, the latest digital edition of Physician Recruiter is live.

Health Execs Will Be in High Demand in 2010

Not surprisingly, recruiters are predicting that medical jobs will be among the most in demand in the next year. What is a little surprising and encouraging is that most executive recruiters are predicting an increase in demand for their services next year. This is an optimistic sign. Whether it's physician jobs or sales jobs or accounting jobs, if companies are paying more fees to source and hire recruits, it means that the overall job market is improving.

This from MSNCB...

Health care leaders top list of in-demand execs

Report finds more recruiters also expect job market to improve in 6 months

NEW YORK - Health care industry executives are expected to be the most sought-after in the new year, according to a monthly survey of executive search professionals released on Monday.

Health care likely will lead the demand for senior-level staff in the first quarter, followed by clean technology, life sciences, high technology and the energy and utilities industry, according to the survey by ExecuNet, a private network for business leaders.

The report also said that more executive recruiters think the executive employment market will improve. Fifty-four percent expect the market to get better in the next six months, up from 50 percent who said so a month ago,

A reading above 50 indicates increasing recruitment activity. ExecuNet's index has been at 50 or higher for the past four months, after spending much of 2008 and 2009 below the 50 mark, reflecting shrinking demand.

Executives who work in business development, sales and engineering, as well as operations management, face the brightest prospects in the new year, according to the survey.

Recruiters also predicted increased demand for their services in 2010.

Executive search firms predict a 19 percent increase in assignments received from corporate clients, the highest since early 2008, the survey of 153 recruiters found.

More Nurses, Please!.?!.?!.?!.?

It's pretty clear America is going to need more medical professionals and in a hurry. Largely due to an aging Baby Boomer population that will live longer on average than any generation, American medical facilities must fill more medical jobs than ever before. In addition to physician jobs, recruiters will be hustling to find quality candidates for nursing jobs and allied health jobs.

We can see the need coming, the question remains, where are we going to find them all.

Here's an article from CNNMoney today about the impending nursing shortage that addresses some of the issues.

Nursing crisis looms as baby boomers age

By Aaron Smith, CNNMoney.com staff writerDecember 22, 2009: 12:47 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- America could be facing a nursing shortage that will worsen exponentially as the population grows older.

The problem: Baby boomers are getting older and will require more care than ever, taxing an already strained nursing system.

Lab instructor Lisa Rubin leads a class at New York University's College of Nursing.

America has had a nursing shortage for years, said Peter Buerhaus, workforce analyst at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing in Nashville, Tenn. But by 2025, the country will be facing a shortfall of 260,000 RNs, he said.

"In a few short years, just under four out of 10 nurses will be over the age of 50," said Buerhaus. "They'll be retiring out in a decade. And we're not replacing these nurses even as the demand for them will be growing."

That's because nursing schools are already maxed out.

"We've got to find another portal to bring nurses into the profession," said Claire Zangerle, chief executive of the Visiting Nurse Association of Ohio and former chief nursing officer at the Cleveland Clinic. "We don't have enough nursing instructors, so therefore the capacity of nursing schools is very limited."

The nursing profession has benefited from the recession, which has prompted new nurses to sign up for school and older nurses to postpone retirement, Buerhaus said.

Some 243,000 registered nurses entered or re-entered the profession during the recession that began in 2007, he said, including many who were forced out of retirement by financial difficulties.

But as the economy improves that kind of growth is unlikely to continue. And experts stress that there will be a nursing shortage even if every nursing school is at capacity.

A lack of teaching staff is the biggest hurdle to minting new RNs, according to Cheryl Peterson, director of nursing practice and policy for the American Nurses Association

"The problem on the supply side is that our current nursing education capacity is at its limit," she said. "[Nursing schools] are pumping out about as many as they can."

Dr. Mary O'Neil Mundinger, the dean of Columbia University Nursing School in New York, said the number of applicants jumped 20% this year to about 400. She said the roster includes professionals seeking a career switch from Wall Street, law and even the opera.

"Making choices between these extremely well qualified applicants is really daunting," she said, noting that the school has capacity for only half the applicants.

Indeed, Claire Zangerle from the Visiting Nurse Association of Ohio said her niece spent two years on a waiting list before getting accepted into a nursing school.

It's hard to recruit and retain nursing instructors when they can usually make more money working in a hospital.

The average starting pay for an RN is about $56,000, according to the American Nurses Association. Mundinger said that the most ambitious graduates can earn as much as $90,000 if they're willing to work long hours, including weekends and night shifts, in busy metropolitan hospitals.

"They need to pay nursing faculty a wage that is attractive enough," said Peterson of the ANA, "You have nurses working in hospital units who are making more than the nurses in education."

Barry Pactor, international director of global healthcare for consulting company HCL International, agrees that more nurses should be trained within the U.S. system. But as a short term solution for this "huge shortage," he said the U.S. government should loosen immigration restrictions on foreign health care workers.

"I don't see this as foreign nurses taking American jobs, because these are vacancies that already exist and cannot be [filled] by nurses currently in training," he said. "We'd be filling in the gaps until the training can catch up with the demand."

Health Care Among Hottest Industries For Job Growth

In an article published on CNNMoney.com today, the Labor Department expects healthcare to be one of the industries seeing the most job growth in the next few years, projecting 4 million new medical jobs and physician jobs will be created between 2008 and 2018.

Professional and business services and health care and social assistance are expected to have the largest employment growth from 2008 to 2018, the Labor Department said.

Professional and business services will add 4.2 million jobs over that 10-year period while health care will increase its employment by 4 million.

Within professional and business services, consulting, computer systems design and employment services will have the most growth.

In the health care and social assistance industry, the top gainers are home health care, services for the elderly and those with disabilities, nursing care facilities and employment in offices of physicians.

More Thanks!

We'd like to thank OSF Saint Francis, Inc of Peoria, IL, Salem Clinic PC of  Salem, OR, Rocky Mountain Medical Search of Fort Collins, CO, Cox Health Center of Springfield, MO, Esperanca of Phoenix, AZ and Good Samaritan Health Center of Atlanta, GA for supporting TheRecruiter.com and Christian Physician Recruiter by listing their medical jobs and physician jobs with us.  Thank you all!

Thank You!

Thank you to The Doctors Clinic of Salem, Oregon, Birmingham Health Care of Birmingham, Alabama, and Emergency Medical Services Group of Bakersfield, California for supporting Physician Recruiter and TheRecruiter.com by advertising their physician jobs and medical jobs with us!