Implications of ob.gyn. recruitment survey under question.(News)

A report issued by a large physician-recruiting firm indicates a decline in demand for ob.gyns., based on the number of searches it has conducted.

Ob.gyn. recruitment searches by Merritt, Hawkins & Associates (MHA) have decreased steadily, from 112 in 2001-2002, to 103 in 2003-2004, to 83 in 2004-2005.

Nevertheless, ob.gyn. was one of the top 15 medical specialty searches in 2005. "We're certainly [recruiting] a lot more ob.gyns. than other specialties. I don't want to suggest that there's an employment crisis in ob.gyn. shaping up," Phil Miller, MHA's director of communications, said in an interview.

The report marks MHA's 12th annual physician-recruiting review. For its 2005 report, the firm reviewed 2,687 physician searches from April 1, 2004, to March 31, 2005. MHA, which describes itself as the largest physician recruiter in the country, conducts more than 2,500 searches annually and is active in all 50 states.

Mr. Miller noted that demand for ob.gyns. appears to be highest in the Southwest, in high-immigration areas: "Latino immigrants have higher birthrates than assimilated citizens."

According to the report, a decline in U.S. birthrates may explain the decrease in the firm's ob.gyn. searches. For some time, the National Center for Health Statistics has been reporting declining rates in teen births, although 2003 data actually showed an increase in births to women aged 40-44.

"To leap to the conclusion that the decline in searches is explainable by drops in certain local birth rates seems to be not only unsupported, but also a bit pretentious," observed John Gibbons, M.D., past president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.