GROUPS WORK TO RECRUIT QUALIFIED PHYSICIANS

Having an adequate number of doctors in a city means better care for patients with fewer long waits for appointments and surgeries that can be scheduled when it's convenient for the patients rather than when the doctor can squeeze it in.

For those in the Cape Girardeau area who have been told they'll have to wait two weeks for a doctor's appointment or who can't get elective surgery scheduled when they want it, it will come as no surprise that Cape Girardeau is below the national average when it comes to having enough doctors for its population base.

"Across the board we are below the national average," said Dan Berry, director of legal affairs and physician recruitment at Southeast Missouri Hospital. Berry and Michael Anders, physician recruiter and planning specialist at St. Francis Medical Center, are the point men in recruiting physicians to Cape Girardeau to help better those statistics.

"Part of our mission is to improve access to medical care for residents," Berry said. "Our goal is to avoid the necessity of people in Southeast Missouri having to go to Memphis or St. Louis for specialty care. It's better for the continuum of care that the patient not have to be transferred."

In 1999, 34 new doctors began practicing in Cape Girardeau. In past years, the number of new doctors recruited annually has been in the teens, Anders said. That figure included primary care doctors and specialists including pediatricians, a surgeon, an anesthesiologist, a psychiatrist and an electrophysiologist.

The two hospitals often work together to help recruit physicians to the area, either assisting established practices in adding a partner or because the hospitals see a need in the community, Anders said.

Needs are established through research and based on population, incidence of diseases, national statistics on physician productivity by specialty and payer mix, Anders said.

For instance, he said, according to national statistics, Cape Girardeau County should have 19 pediatricians. It has seven.

Need is also established by talking to local health care providers about wait times, patient loads and the like.

"If it takes two weeks to get an appointment, that physician is overloaded," Anders said.

Berry said the most pressing need at this time for the community is primary care providers.

"The United States Department of Health and Human Services has designated most Southeast Missouri counties as primary care provider shortage areas, so we continue to try to recruit to fill that need," Berry said.

Primary care providers include family practice doctors, internal medicine physicians, pediatricians and obstetricians/gynecologists.

But knowing the types of doctors you need is only the beginning of the recruiting process. The hard part, Berry and Anders said, is finding those doctors and convincing them to move to Cape Girardeau.

Anders said there are databases that list those getting ready to graduate from residency programs, as well as practicing doctors looking to relocate.

"We try to find doctors who are looking for a Midwest lifestyle in a moderate four-season climate, a safe community for children and no traffic," Berry said.

What Cape Girardeau offers to such doctors, Berry and Anders said, is an area with low managed care penetration and a medical community with state-of-the-art technology and equipment.

"We've never had a doctor to not take a job here because they weren't satisfied with the technology here," Berry said. "In fact, many say our equipment and technology is as good as or better that at academic medical centers."

Showing off the community, its medical facilities as well as neighborhoods, schools and amenities, is a crucial factor in convincing prospective recruits to relocate here. Anders said it's a collaborative effort between the hospitals, the medical practice seeking to add the physician, real estate agents, Chamber of Commerce and Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Once the search is narrowed and a physician brought in to see Cape Girardeau, Berry said, that doctor usually decides to relocate here.