Doctors in Denver, Springs popular with recruiters

Denver doctors are in high demand.

In fact, they’re wanted more than doctors in any other city, according to a report released Wednesday.

Recruiters are hunting for doctors inColorado Springs aswell. It ranked fifth in the country for recruitment, according to Doximity, a professional network with more than 500,000 member doctors.

Louisville, Ky., Spokane, Wash., and Las Vegas ranked second, third and fourth.

Lauren Lloyd, a Doximity spokeswoman, said its data don’t explain why, but Denver doctors “are currently the heaviest recruited” by employers.

She also suggested one barrier to recruitment: “Denver is a great place to live.”

The Doximity report also listed average salaries for doctors in different states. Those findings defy the stereotype of an old country doctor making home visits with his black bag and accepting chickens from patients who lacked cash.

The highest- paying state for a specialist? North Dakota, with an average of $ 472,000. Average earnings for Colorado specialists rank a distant 43rd, at $ 346,000.

“It turns out, cities where our data shows physicians are most interested in working — Los Angeles, San Francisco andWashington, D. C. — have average salaries significantly lower than the rest of the country,” the report said.

The nation’s capitol, a relatively expensive place to live, also had the lowest average pay for primary care physicians, at $ 191,500.

The report also found a continuing pay gap between male and female doctors. While women now make up one- third of the physician workforce, it said, male physicians earn an average of 21 percent more.

Last year doctor pay in Colorado also was slightly below average.