The Epic Problem: Why Healthcare Systems Can't Find Virtualists Fast Enough

Your health system decided to launch a virtual care program. You need three physicians licensed in New York, two in Texas, one in California. You posted the job. You waited three weeks for qualified candidates. You interviewed. You made offers. Six candidates turned you down. The remaining two accepted offers contingent on passing credentialing, which takes 90 days. You're now five months into recruitment with two confirmed hires starting in five months.

The root problem: you're recruiting physicians to work on Epic, but most physicians don't have Epic experience.

Why This Matters: Straight From a Virtualist Leader

Dr. Lyle Berkowitz, founder and chairman of KeyCare (a 50-state national virtual medical group built on Epic), encountered this exact problem at scale.

When building KeyCare's virtualist network, Berkowitz realized that finding physicians already comfortable with Epic was the critical bottleneck. As he explained:

"Most physicians have never used Epic. A physician trained on Cerner, NextGen, or a smaller EMR needs weeks of ramp-up before they're productive on Epic. For a virtual role where you need productivity immediately, this ramp-up is costly."

This is why Berkowitz and his team made finding pre-trained virtualists a core operational priority. You can't launch a national virtual program if every hire needs 6-8 weeks of Epic training.

The Epic-Virtualist Mismatch

Epic is complex. A physician trained on Cerner, NextGen, or a smaller EMR needs 3-6 weeks of ramp-up before they're productive on Epic.

For a virtual role where you need productivity immediately, this ramp-up is costly.

Most job postings require "Epic experience." This immediately eliminates 40-50% of qualified candidates.

Those remaining candidates are in high demand. They get multiple offers. Your rural telehealth role in Iowa can't compete with an urban role in Boston.

Why This Matters Financially

Each month your virtual position is empty costs:

• Missed revenue: A virtualist seeing 12 patients per day at $100 per visit generates $24,000 per month. Empty for six months: $144,000 lost.
• Overflow to external vendors: You contract with a transactional telehealth company at 40% markup. You pay $140 per visit instead of $100 per visit seeing your own physicians.
• Burnout in existing staff: Your current physicians absorb the overflow. Burnout increases. Turnover accelerates. A single physician departure costs $150k-300k to replace.

The total cost of a six-month hiring delay: $200k-400k.

Why DirectShifts Changes This

DirectShifts maintains a pre-vetted network of 800k+ clinicians, including virtualists with specific Epic experience. More critically: DirectShifts pre-vets these physicians. Background checks, credentialing data, references already verified.

When your health system posts a role on DirectShifts:

• Qualified candidates appear within 48 hours (not weeks)
• Candidates have pre-existing Epic experience or demonstrable EMR competency
• Credentialing ramp-up is faster because pre-verification is already done
• You can make offers within 2-3 weeks instead of 6-8 weeks

The DirectShifts Advantage in Numbers

Without DirectShifts:

• Job posting to offer acceptance: 8-12 weeks
• Credentialing to first day of work: 90 days
• Total time to productivity: 4-5 months

With DirectShifts:

• Job posting to offer acceptance: 2-3 weeks
• Credentialing to first day of work: 60 days (accelerated with pre-verification)
• Total time to productivity: 2.5-3 months

Difference: 1.5-2 months faster. At 12 patients per day x $100 per visit: $36k-48k in recovered revenue per hire.

What Makes a Physician Production-Ready

According to Berkowitz, the ideal virtualist hire has three qualities:

1. Epic experience (or willingness to ramp quickly)
2. Comfort with documentation efficiency (knowing how to chart fast without sacrificing quality)
3. Understanding of virtual workflows (knowing how to manage patients you can't examine)

DirectShifts pre-screens for all three. This is why DirectShifts-matched physicians become productive 1.5-2 months faster than traditional recruits.

FAQs

Q: How quickly can DirectShifts fill a virtual physician role?

A: Typical timeline: 2-3 weeks to hire, 60-90 days to start working (credentialing). Total time to productivity: 2.5-3 months.

Q: Does DirectShifts handle credentialing?

A: DirectShifts manages credentialing logistics and uses pre-existing verified data to accelerate the process. Final credentialing is typically managed by your health system or the payers.

Q: What if we need physicians in multiple states simultaneously?

A: DirectShifts can match candidates across multiple states in parallel. We routinely fill 5-10 positions simultaneously.

Q: Can DirectShifts fill specialized roles or just primary care?

A: Both. Our network includes primary care, urgent care, behavioral health, specialty consultations, and nursing roles across all 50 states.