How long does it take to hire a physician?

Longer than almost any other role. Between search, interviews, notice periods, licensure, and credentialing, many months from posting to first clinic day is normal, and hard-to-fill specialties or rural locations can take a year or more. The most reliable way to shorten the timeline is to start before the vacancy opens and to run credentialing tasks in parallel from the day of signing.

What does it cost to recruit a physician?

Costs vary widely with specialty, location, and channel mix, and MedXL does not currently publish a dataset on average recruitment cost. The major components are advertising, search-firm fees where used, candidate travel and site visits, signing bonuses and relocation support, and the opportunity cost of the unfilled position — which is usually the largest item.

Should we use a physician search firm?

Use one when the role is senior, niche, or has a documented history of failed searches, and when your internal team lacks capacity for sustained outreach. Before engaging, agree in writing on fees, the replacement guarantee, exclusivity, and who owns candidates you sourced independently. For roles with reasonable candidate flow, targeted posting and referrals are usually more cost-effective.

What is primary-source verification and why does it matter?

It means confirming each credential with the organization that issued it — the medical board or College for licensure, the certifying board for specialty certification, the school and residency program for education — rather than relying on documents the candidate provides. It matters because credential misrepresentation, while uncommon, carries severe patient-safety and liability consequences, and because accreditation and credentialing standards require it.

How do we verify a licence in Canada versus the United States?

In Canada, each provincial or territorial College maintains a public register — CPSO for Ontario and CPSBC for British Columbia, for example — showing licence class, status, and restrictions. In the United States, verify with each state medical board where the physician holds or has held a licence; FSMB's DocInfo service provides a consolidated public view. In both countries, check every jurisdiction in the candidate's history, not only the current one.

What should we look for in a physician's disciplinary history?

Review the nature, recency, and resolution of any finding. A decades-old administrative citation differs materially from recent restrictions on practice or findings involving patient harm. Ask the candidate for their account, verify it against the regulator's published record, and document the organization's assessment and decision rationale in the hiring file.

Are non-compete clauses enforceable in physician contracts?

Enforceability varies significantly by state and province, and the legal environment has been shifting; some jurisdictions restrict or prohibit restrictive covenants for physicians entirely. Draft narrowly where they are used, and have employment counsel in the relevant jurisdiction review both the clause and current law before relying on it. This guide cannot substitute for jurisdiction-specific legal advice.

How is hiring a physician in Canada different from the United States?

The regulatory anatomy differs: provincial Colleges rather than state boards govern licensure, RCPSC and CFPC rather than ABMS boards govern certification, and much physician payment flows through provincial insurance plans rather than employer-negotiated payer contracts, which changes how compensation is structured. Quebec additionally applies French-language requirements. The underlying disciplines — honest role definition, primary-source verification, structured interviews — are the same in both countries.

What is the biggest cause of early physician turnover?

Mismatch between what recruitment promised and what the job delivered — call burden, patient volumes, support staffing, or culture. The remedy is on the employer's side: describe the role accurately, involve future colleagues in interviews, and use structured early check-ins to surface problems while they can still be fixed.

Can we hire internationally trained physicians?

Yes, and for shortage specialties and rural locations it is often essential. In the United States, candidates generally need ECFMG certification, completion of US residency training (with limited exceptions in some states), and appropriate work authorization. In Canada, provinces operate defined IMG routes including practice-ready assessment pathways. Plan for immigration processing as a major timeline component and engage specialist counsel early.

How should we evaluate residents who have not yet finished training?

Recruit on trajectory rather than track record: training program reputation, references from program directors and attendings, case exposure relevant to your role, and demonstrated interest in your community or setting. Offers to residents are commonly signed a year or more before the start date; keep signed future hires engaged with regular contact, or risk losing them before day one.

Where does MedXL fit in a physician hiring workflow?

Employers use MedXL's healthcare jobs board (1,000+ active listings) to reach physicians searching by specialty and region, the employer directory at /employers to maintain an organizational presence, and the provider directory of roughly 955,000 US and Canadian provider records for sourcing research and preliminary licence checks against regulator-sourced profile data. Formal credentialing must still verify with the regulator directly.

Hiring Physicians: A Practical Guide

By MedXL Workforce Editors · Updated 2026-08-03 · 18 min read

Hiring a physician is one of the most consequential decisions a healthcare organization makes. A single physician hire shapes patient access, clinical quality, referral patterns, and team culture for years. It is also one of the slowest and most expensive recruitment processes in any industry: searches routinely take many months, and a failed hire means repeating the entire cycle while patients wait and existing staff absorb the workload.

This guide is written for healthcare employers and recruiters in the United States and Canada — hospital medical staff offices, group practices, community health centres, academic departments, locum agencies, and in-house talent teams. It walks through the full hiring lifecycle: defining the role, understanding the market, sourcing candidates, verifying credentials, structuring interviews, negotiating offers, and onboarding through credentialing and privileging.

Physician hiring differs from other recruitment in three ways. First, supply is constrained. Physicians complete a decade or more of training before they are eligible to practise, and shortages in many specialties and regions mean employers compete for a small pool. Second, regulation dominates the process. Licensure, board or College certification, credentialing, and privileging each carry their own documentation requirements and timelines, and they differ between the United States and Canada, and between individual states and provinces. Third, the stakes of verification are high. An inadequa

In this guide

Introduction
Key takeaways
Understanding the physician labour market
How market conditions change your approach
Common mistakes
Best practices
Defining the role and compensation
What a complete role definition includes
Compensation structure
Common mistakes
Best practices
Sourcing candidates
Channels that produce physician candidates
Writing outreach that gets replies
Common mistakes
Screening and credential verification
Primary-source verification
Red flags that warrant follow-up
Common mistakes
Interviewing physicians
Structure the process
The site visit
Common mistakes
Offer, contract, and onboarding through credentialing
The offer
The contract
Credentialing, privileging, and enrolment
Onboarding for retention
Step-by-step guide
Physician hiring checklist
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to hire a physician?
What does it cost to recruit a physician?
Should we use a physician search firm?
What is primary-source verification and why does it matter?
How do we verify a licence in Canada versus the United States?
What should we look for in a physician's disciplinary history?
Are non-compete clauses enforceable in physician contracts?
How is hiring a physician in Canada different from the United States?
What is the biggest cause of early physician turnover?
Can we hire internationally trained physicians?
How should we evaluate residents who have not yet finished training?
Where does MedXL fit in a physician hiring workflow?
Related resources
References