Northern California physicians flock to Kaiser Permanente

The nation's largest medical group is growing, and it still has more applicants than it can place.

By Mike Norbut, AMNews staff. Dec. 13, 2004.

In some areas of the country, groups may wait months to find a physician to fill an open slot, and their recruiting efforts can carry a pretty hefty price tag.

In Northern California, Kaiser Permanente receives an average of seven applications for every open physician slot at its flagship medical group.

For physicians in the region searching for safety in numbers, The Permanente Medical Group is the ultimate destination, as its 5,000-plus doctors make up the largest group in the nation. The group's growth in recent years has been eye-popping as well; it has hired more than 500 new physicians this year and more than 2,300 since Jan. 1, 2002.

"The majority of our hires are new hires," said Robert Pearl, MD, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon and executive director and CEO of The Permanente Medical Group. "We have a pattern going on where we hire about 500 to 550 full-time physicians every year and add a group of part-time people."

Kaiser Permanente's financial performance has allowed it to grow substantially over the last few years, as it reinvests its earnings in facilities and technology.

The Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc., Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and their subsidiaries recorded net income of $996 million and revenue of $25.3 billion in 2003. In 2002, the organization reported net income of $70 million on revenue of $22.5 billion, as it recorded a charge of $442 million related to the transition to a more advanced electronic medical record system.