We have a joke in the healthcare recruiting industry we call the black hole of HR. It’s where no one ever sees your resume no matter how many times you apply, and no one calls you back even though the job is still open and you are perfect for it. A lot of HR departments are short staffed and their executive team doesn't see it as a money producing department (even though it most certainly is) so maybe they don't have enough people. Also the HR department does a lot more than just hire people and many times they say their day to day focus is just putting out fires so if they have really pressing things they need to do, you’re not going to get a call back.
Recruiters have agreements with employers that state if a candidate goes to the recruiter they will get compensated for bringing the candidate. If a candidate applies directly to the hospital then we will not get compensated. However, the people that apply directly most often do not get seen and their resume gets lost in the black hole. Meanwhile, even though the employer can look through their own applications, they will outsource to us the hiring process so they can work on their employee benefits and other work.
The worst situation I’ve seen was when we worked on a Director job and I sent in a bunch of people. The hospital was interviewing all of our people. Meanwhile I spoke to a candidate on the phone who would have been perfect for the job. He actually applied on his own but never got called. He was local to the facility, had everything they were looking for, but I couldn’t send him in because he had already applied on his own and came to me afterwards. So it was up to the hospital to sort through their resumes and find him in their black hole. They did not. We ended up filling the job with one of our candidates even though he was probably a better fit. He was now held hostage in the hospital’s database and will not be able to move forward because they are actually using us for their hiring. This is something the job seeker never knows.
Always network and do your due diligence with a healthcare recruiter and if the recruiter has a great relationship with an employer and has filled all their previous jobs then you need to use them rather than apply directly on your own. It's only going to help you.