SUZANNE BOYD

Vanessa Patrick, center, and Cheri Spencer, who work in the Physician Services department at West Tennessee Healthcare, discuss physician recruitment with Will Pitt, office manager for Semmes-Murphey Clinic in Jackson.

Physician recruitment in West Tennessee and across the nation is more than finding a physician; it also requires fitting the physician, his or her family, and lifestyle into the practice and community, as well as keeping them there. Many trends in the healthcare market affect recruitment, from the national shortage of physicians to the fact that the number of retiring physicians and medical graduates is nearly equal each year. As the pool of candidates from which to draw is reduced, retention has become a natural aspect of the job.

Physician recruitment activity is driven by assessing the needs of the community being served, the demographics of the area, medical staff ages, the number of those retiring and requests from local practices.

“Our numbers are based on a community needs assessment conducted every 18 months, which gives us information on how many physicians from each specialty we are going to need,” said Kevin Barron, vice president of physician services for West Tennessee Healthcare. “Based on what this assessment shows, we match that with practical coverage needs for the service with quality of life issues. We also augment that every five years with a survey of our medical staff, which is used to develop a five-year plan for services and recruitment.”

A 2007 Review of Physician Recruiting published by Merritt, Hawkins & Associates, a national healthcare search firm, found that recruitment challenges exist nationwide. The study underscored the trend in physician recruiting shifting toward primary care even as demand for surgical and diagnostic specialties remained strong. According to this report, the five most highly recruited specialties in 2006-07 were family practice (which includes family practice/obstetrics), internal medicine, hospitalists, radiology, and orthopedic surgery.

One proven tactic in the recruitment process is to find someone who has a tie to the area. One source for this type of candidate is the many training programs that are in or within close proximity to West Tennessee. “We find that the largest number of our physicians come from Tennessee, then the states that border West Tennessee,” said Vanessa Patrick, manager of physician recruitment and retention for West Tennessee Healthcare.

“We find it easier to recruit a physician who either was born in the area, grew up here or was trained around here,” said Barron, who has the personal philosophy that everyone eventually goes back home.

“On average, these candidates are more eager to grow their practice, build relationships with other local physicians and the hospital, and tend to remain in the area,” said Maleia Lee, chief recruiting officer for Regional Hospital of Jackson and Dyersburg Regional Medical Center. “In 10 years of being a physician recruiter, the most common reason I’ve experienced for losing a prospective physician is their preference to live and practice closer to family who live elsewhere.”

One of the biggest differences in recruiting physicians today versus 10 years ago is what physicians are looking for in terms of quality of life issues, such as personal and family interests, which now play major roles in the recruitment and retention process. A 2006 Retention Survey from the American Medical Group Association and Cejka Search, a national physician and healthcare executive search firm, indicated that such factors as cultural fit and family are driving factors in physician turnover. “Poor cultural fit” was the single most frequently given reason by a physician for voluntarily leaving a practice. Family issues, such as relocating to be near family or spousal occupation, also were strong contributors in a physician’s decision to leave.

“A physician’s interest in any particular practice opportunity is usually 60 percent personal and 40 percent professional,” said Lee. “In order to place quality physicians in West Tennessee communities, we must be very attentive to what their personal interests are and more importantly what their family’s interests are. Not being located near a beach or snow-topped mountain is in no way a deterrent. West Tennessee has a lot to offer, we just have to make certain the candidate is made aware of everything that interests them.”

This also means that a part of the recruitment process has to include a physician’s family and their needs and interests. Recruiters can spend just as much time with the physician’s spouse to ensure he or she is happy with the decision to come to West Tennessee as they do with the physician. “We work very closely with Realtors and schools, and have even helped with job placement for spouses so they can continue their careers once they move,” Patrick adds. “All these pieces have to be in place for a physician to come.”

“Once we do get them to come, we have found that if their spouse is unhappy here, they will leave for personal reasons,” said Barron. This retention of the physician once recruited to an area is so crucial that many hospitals have physician liaison departments that work very closely with the recruitment department.

“Building relationships between the physician, the hospital, and the community are essential for retention of physicians,” said Lee. “I don’t recruit new physicians, I recruit new friends. That truly is my philosophy toward physician recruitment… It is a passion, not a job.”



May 2008