A Blog for Physician Recruiters

In his article by the same title, Kurt Mosley, Vice President of Business Operations for Merritt Hawkins & Associates, takes a close look at the plight facing many of today's physicians. The stress and demands that come with being a physician, including reimbursement hassles and being told by government agencies and insurance companies which tests, procedures and drugs can and can’t be prescribed, are causing some doctors to leave medicine altogether and deterring young people from pursuing careers in the medical field.

These issues are evidence that practicing medicine, particularly family medicine, is devalued in the minds of many Americans. Given the time physicians spend in medical school, the loans and debt acquired during that time and the long hours put in during their careers, the rewards don’t seem to outweigh the negatives—a perception that is not likely to help lessen the building physician shortage.

What are your thoughts? Share your ideas and questions by submitting a comment in the box below. Read the full article published on the Recruiting Trends website.

In Part 1 of this pair of blog posts, I explained how to create and implement a strategic framework and how creating a medical staff development (MSD) committee can help you successfully execute your recruitment strategy.

Create the optimal environment.

• Where physicians practice and how they practice is changing. The CEO must ensure the hospital has created a practice environment likely to meet the needs of today’s physicians, to both retain existing staff and to attract new doctors.

• Tactics may include a shift to direct hospital employment of physicians, hospitalist and surgicalist programs, pay for emergency department call, physician/hospital joint ventures, gain sharing and related strategies for enhancing physicians’ lifestyles and incomes.

• Efficient patient admission and discharge, quick turnaround of lab results, an adequate nursing staff, reliable access to operating rooms, even convenient parking are all workplace fundamentals key to attracting and retaining physicians.

• Success in physician recruiting is in large measure a matter of attitude. CEOs can signal their commitment to physician recruiting success in two key ways: by being available and by being responsive.

• Despite conflicting priorities, CEOs should be accessible when key decisions in the recruiting process need to be made. They also should accommodate the interview schedules of physician candidates, which often mean weekend and night availability. Responding to candidate needs quickly—before misunderstandings or declining interest intervene—is imperative.

• CEOs should display a sense of urgency about physician recruiting and instill a similar attitude in the recruiting committee.

I hope you found this information helpful to your recruitment efforts. As always, please feel free to add additional insight on this subject by posting your comment below. To learn more about the role of the CEO in physician recruiting, read the original article here.

How involved should the hospital’s CEO be in the process of finding and maintaining the appropriate physician mix?

While they cannot be directly involved in every stage of the process, CEOs also can’t take a completely hands-off approach. Amid delegating the legwork and logistics of recruiting, the CEO should:

Ensure a strategic framework is in place.

• Physician recruiting should be a proactive process driven by an understanding of the hospital’s current medical staff and its projected needs, and this process should be outlined in a formal medical staff plan available to physician recruiters, medical directors and others.

• The plan should provide a blueprint for current and projected staffing requirements via a portrait of the current staff, breaking down physicians by specialty, age, gender and, through a medical staff survey, by practice characteristics, career plans and physician recruiting needs.

• The plan also provides proof of compliance—federal regulations require hospitals to justify their recruiting efforts on the basis of a demonstrable community need for new physicians.

Assemble a medical staff development (MSD) committee to carry out the physician recruiting function.

• The MSD, comprised of five to 10 people, including a board member, a chief medical officer, in-house physician recruiters and a mix of other top hospital representatives, is tasked with completing the medical staff plan, designing physician retention programs, developing incentive packages and contracts, sourcing candidates, reviewing CVs, interviewing, working with outside recruiting consultants and helping with candidate relocation.

• The CEO remains the central figure on the committee and has the final say regarding strategies, contracts and candidates.

Merritt Hawkins & Associates is happy to announce the launch of our redesigned Web site. As you have probably noticed, the overall look and feel of MerrittHawkins.com has improved significantly. The new site has all the useful information and features found on the old one, but we have also added a number of new features you will find useful.

The Recruiter's Resource page lists whitepapers and other informational materials helpful to those involved in healthcare recruitment. Over time, we plan to develop a multitude of resources for your reference.

This blog will contain posts written in response to common questions, so you can find out what issues others are experiencing and how to overcome those problems. This column is intended to be an interactive feature, so please feel free to comment on the blog posts.

We hope you enjoy our new Web site, and look forward to your feedback. Remember, you can also submit questions to be addressed in future blog posts by clicking on the banner to the left. Thanks for stopping by!