Hospital attraction measures in times of physician shortages: An analysis of job advertisements

Background Rising demand for physicians has led to increased competition among German hospitals, driving them to offer various measures to attract physicians. However, a comprehensive examination of these attraction measures (e.g. training opportunities) from an organizational perspective is lacking. By using organization theory, we explore how hospital attraction measures are associated with organizational and environmental hospital characteristics.Methods We examined hospital attraction measures by analyzing physician job advertisements (ads) sourced from online job boards. A total of n = 1,971 job ads from n = 639 German hospitals were selected. Job ads were analyzed via thematic content analysis. The resulting data set was then linked to secondary data from German hospitals, followed by a multilevel logistic regression analysis.Results Attraction measures varied between hospitals depending on several factors including hospital size, ownership, and location. Surprisingly, the chance of offering a wider range of attraction measures in job ads increased for urban hospitals compared to their rural counterparts. Hospitals also offered more attraction measures to residents, making their job ads stand out from those for other positions (e.g. consultants).Conclusion Organizational and environmental hospital characteristics matter when explaining differences in attraction measures. This is why hospitals should consider adapting their attraction measures to their context.