All Entries in the "Recruitment & retention" Category
Internet playing increasing role in physician job searches
More physicians are ditching the fancy resume paper and stamps in favor of Internet searches, according to a recent American Medical News article. In addition, physician recruiters are relying less on expensive search firms and more on the Internet and word of mouth to get physicians on board. The article states that in 2009, the number of inhouse recruiters who regularly used external search firms dropped to 49% from 55.1% in 2008. Take the poll below to share how your hospitalist program handles recruitment searches.
Recruitment tip: Engage in the wrap-up discussion
The goal of each interview is for the candidate to leave wanting the job. That puts the power of the recruiting process in your practice’s hands.
Remember to allow time at the end of the interview to ask the candidate about his or her impressions of your practice. Establish a timeline for follow-up procedures, including the final decision date. Your practice might want to reach a decision on the candidate within 24 hours of the interview, but if the decision can be reached before the candidate leaves, that is even better.
Also, use this wrap-up discussion time to correct any false impressions the candidate might have received during the interview. It is good to ask some closing questions during this time, such as the following:
- Can you see yourself living and working here?
- Are you concerned about anything you saw or heard?
- Did this interview accomplish your goals?
- How do we stack up in your mind?
The above excerpt is adapted from Practical Guide to Hospitalist Recruitment and Retention by Kirk Mathews, MBA, foreword by John Nelson, MD, FACP, FHM, published by HCPro, Inc, in Marblehead, MA.
Tool: Sample surgical hospitalist clinical responsibilities
We've heard from readers that you would like to see more forms, policies, and tools. You asked, and here it is!
Because the clinical role of a surgical hospitalist, or “surgicalist,” vary from one setting to the next, we are including a sample job description. Remember, the duties are typically listed in employment contracts and maintained in the practice policy and procedure manual, which the hospital updates periodically.
Recent physician recruitment survey
Merritt Hawkins & Associates recently released their 2009 Review of Physician and CRNA Recruiting Incentives report and revealed some interesting, but not particularly surprising, trends. This review is based on the physician and CRNA search assignments that Merritt Hawkins & Associates conducted during the 12-month period from April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009. I look at some of the numbers with a bit of skepticism since this is totally a report of its own internal data. However, it does seem to affirm some trends that are evident in the marketplace. Here are some highlights of interest to hospitalists:
Great demand for hospitalists!
Hospitalists are third on its list of most sought after physicians, right behind family practice, which is number one by a long shot, and number two, internal medicine. The report correctly points out that since many internal medicine physicians are pursuing hospitalist positions, the demand for traditional internists is on the rise. Personally, I am of the opinion that the practice of traditional (outpatient and inpatient) internal medicine faces possible extinction over the next 10 years or so.
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Contest entry: Go paperless
Jenna Duch, medical staff coordinator at Akron Children’s Hospital in Ohio, submitted a suggestion to the Greeley Medical Staff Institute Symposium contest that we wanted to share because it will help save the environment. Duch puts all of the medical staff orientation materials onto a USB key rather than stuffing several trees’ worth of paper into cumbersome binders. She includes hyperlinks on the agenda page to guide medical staff members through all of the documents and help them find specific information. Transitioning to USB drives is a strategy any department–including hopsitalist programs–can do!
Contest entry: Physician retention redesign plan
“A lot of time, money, and effort go into recruiting physicians,” says Medical Staff Coordinator Carrie Garity, CPMSM, at Fort HealthCare in Fort Atkinson, WI. “They fly them in, wine and dine them, show them the hospital, clinics, and community. Once the physician decides to join a medical staff, however, the royalty treatment seems to end.”
Carrie sent in a great redesign plan on physician retention for The Greeley Medical Staff Institution contest. Carrie heard from a physician on staff for about five years that he didn’t know what he was doing for months when he first started, particularly finding out about policies and procedures after the fact. The physician’s partners were simply too busy to discuss anything with him.
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The southern twang of hospitalists: Why so many hospitalists hail from the South
I often tell other editors (who are typically in the New England offices) that I like interviewing hospitalists, mostly for their southern accents! Obviously, I kid, but that does pose an interesting question as to why many in southern states dedicate themselves to inpatient medicine.
According to a recent Archives of Internal Medicine study, “Hospitalists and the Quality of Care in Hospitals,” most hospitals that utilized hospitalists were located in the southern U.S. states in large metropolitan areas. They tended to be large, private, not-for-profit, teaching institutions. Here’s the breakdown by region, according to the study:
Hospitals with hospitalists:
- South 39.2%
- Midwest 21.8%
- West 20.6%
- Northeast 18.5%
Are concierge hospitalists coming?
I recently had the opportunity to have lunch with a member of the board of directors of a company called MDVIP and was fascinated by their business model. MDVIP helps primary care physicians transition from a traditional practice model to a concierge practice. This company was featured in a recent article on CNNmoney.com.
Here are some of the basics of MDVIP as I understand them:
- The patient pays an annual retainer of approx. $1,500 or $125 per month
- The practice limits the number of patients to between 300—600
- The physician is accessible to any patient around the clock by cell phone and will even meet the patient in the emergency room when an emergency arises
- The patient keeps his or her health insurance in place
- The patient must take an annual “Mayo Clinic” level physical, and the practice focuses on wellness and prevention
Physicians ready to retire? Flexible work options could be the fix
Despite findings from government think-tanks that that our nation appears to be emerging from economic woes, the fact remains that there are a great many physicians today who wanted to retire this year but didn’t because of economic and financial pressures.
According to a recently released 2008 Physician Retention Survey by Cejka Search and the AMGA, nearly two-thirds (62%) of survey respondents believe that physicians are delaying retirement due to the economy. How did organizations respond to the threat of their physicians’ retirement? Almost half (49%) of respondents said they find that part-time options are enabling physicians to delay retirement.
Medical groups are also generally willing to modify work schedules of pre-retirement physicians to encourage them to stay longer:
- 73% of respondents offer their pre-retirement physicians reduced hours
- 56% allow for no-call responsibility
- 20% allow for specialization with certain patient groups
“Physicians can’t retire now,” said Kathy Murray, senior director of recruitment partnerships of the physician search division of Cejka Search. Murray further explained that “increasing numbers of physicians who have retired are looking to get back into the workforce or to supplement their retirement income.”
How has your facility dealt with retiring physicians this year? What have you done for retention? Please share your tips below in the Comments section.
Hospitalist teachers drive students into internal and family medicine
In my last post, I mentioned an article in the July issue of The Hospitalist. The article discussed medical school debt versus physician pay, and how students are being driven away from careers in internal medicine and family medicine because the debt-to-salary ratio is skewed. The article suggests several ways in which society can lower medical school debt and drive more medical students into internal medicine and family medicine. One that struck me is for medical schools to create a clear hospital medicine career path for students spearheaded by hospitalists who take on teaching roles. “The stronger the mentors, the more internal medicine students you’re going to recruit,” one source said.
Are any of you mentoring medical students in your “spare time?” I’d love to hear what advice you give them. Do you set up formal times to meet or are you a mentor-on-call? Do you end up giving career advice, or do you spend most of your mentoring time soothing emotional breakdowns? What do you tell them about debt and finances?
Small practice docs opt for hospital employment
Physicians from small groups are nearly four times more likely to become direct employees of a hospital, compared to physicians from other groups. Medical groups responding to the survey reported this trend in the 2008 Physician Retention Survey by Cejka Search and the American Medical Group Association.
Why? In today’s marketplace, a confluence of economic trends, such as rising medical practice costs, social trends among physicians, and growing political pressure for healthcare reform contribute to another trend–physicians are increasingly seeking to make the move to hospital or large group practice employment.
Among those surveyed, physicians who left in the past 12 months to practice clinical medicine, opting to be a direct employee of a hospital included the following:
Looking for a NP or PA to join your hospitalist practice?
Inviting nurse practitioner (NP) or physician assistant (PA) students onto your hospitalist team is a great way to recruit a strong staff, says Allan Platt, PA-C, MMSc, a faculty member at Emory University School of Medicine’s Physician Assistant Program. “I think having students on board is a no-risk way to recruit PAs,” he said in a recent interview.
By inviting students to train with your program, you have the opportunity to introduce them to the hospitalist’s role and teach them about practicing in a hospital setting. This is important because most NP and PA programs focus on outpatient, clinic-based care. Students that do a good job and make a good fit for the program’s culture can potentially walk right into a job after graduation.
