Medical imaging vacancy rates are hitting historic highs, according to new survey data from the American Society of Radiologic Technologists.
All medical imaging disciplines included in the analysis reported their highest percentage of unfilled positions, for which they are actively recruiting, since ASRT started tracking these numbers in 2003. This includes an “all-time high” of 18.1% among radiographers, up from 6.2% in 2021.
The findings mirror results from other recent surveys conducted by the American Hospital Association, National Nurses United, Hospital and Healthcare Association of Pennsylvania, among others.
“We … understood that the pandemic could affect medical imaging vacancy rates, so the survey results aren’t surprising,” ASRT CEO and Executive Director Melissa B. Pergola said in a May 8 announcement.
The society highlighted marked updates in vacancy rates among several positions since conducting the last survey in 2021. Those included cardiovascular interventional techs (leaping from 7.1% to 18.6% over a two-year period), CT (8.7% to 17.7%), sonography (6.9% to 16.7%) and MRI (8.7% to 16.2%). The majority of survey respondents worked in hospitals (53%), followed by imaging centers (13.7%) or physician offices (9.6%). ASRT emailed the every-other-year survey to radiology department managers in February and received roughly 500 submissions, for a response rate of about 2.1%.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.