Landing new doctors means selling the community

With the closest medical schools more than 100 miles away, area hospitals find they rely on selling the community as much as themselves when recruiting doctors and other health professionas.

They hire national recruiting firms, send representatives to medical colleges in St. Louis, Memphis and beyond and enlist community members, including school officials and church leaders, to help land prospects.

When Southeast Missouri Hospital recruiter Jennifer McClard speaks to a potential hire, she emphasizes the community attributes of Cape Girardeau, such as the parks, schools, shopping, and dining.

"The hospital wants people to come in and serve the community, and not just for a one year commitment. We want people to stay and serve the community and surrounding area," she said.

Before recruiting begins, hospitals assess their needs. Some decisions are based on numerical formulas, such as the number of pediatricians needed for every 1,000 children, said Dr. Mark Valliere, vice-president of medical affairs at Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau.

In addition to the numeric results, listening to doctors and public is also helpful, he said.

"Primary care doctors tell you they could use more in their field or are telling you they can't get people in to see the orthopedic guys. Patients sometimes call you up asking if they have any other doctors available," he says. "We use the community feedback to validate the numerical formulas."

Each year, Saint Francis develops a plan based on the induced needs of the community and the medical centers. They prioritize and highlight the areas of medicine that are most needed in the community, then take them to a national recruiting agency. The agencies then run print ads, send out emails, letters, and faxes to all the candidates within the specified field.

To generate interest, the hospital recruiters visit universities in St. Louis, Columbia, Mo., Memphis and Springfield, Ill. After reviewing resumes and conducting phone interviews, the individual will be invited to the area if everything seems compatible.

Depending on the circumstances of the visit, Valliere will arrange meetings between families and real estate companies or school officials, if they have young children.

"It usually involves more than one visit," Valliere says. "Once you get them to town, part of it is selling Cape Girardeau, part of it is selling the medical practices. It is two pronged, really."

The Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce produces pamphlets and DVDs touting the city and Saint Francis uses those tools and people from the community to provide tours. The hospital isn't just seeking potential staff members. Sometimes it's an attempt to recruit a family practitioner to place them in an already existing family practitioner group in Cape Girardeau.

"The talent moves around, we're constantly working on retention," Valliere says. "People retire, people get sick. It's an ongoing process."

Southeast Missouri Hospital has recently created a physician recruiting website promoting Cape Girardeau. It is just one of the techniques used by Southeast to bring in new physicians and medical staff.

The site offers audio and video features showcasing area attractions. The Show-Me-Center, Mississippi River, and Southeast Missouri State University, including the new River Campus, are included in the various slide shows, with Cape Chamber of Commerce president and CEO John Mehner narrating.

Joni Adams, the supervisor of web tools at Southeast and creator of the new site, hopes it will give potential hospital employees a clear view of Cape Girardeau, so they will view it as a regional hub, rather than just a small town.

"It's more on Cape Girardeau than the hospital," Adams says of the website.

Southeast also uses national recruiting agencies, but relies more on Internet job postings and word-of-mouth, McClard says,

She works closely with Dr. Lee Taylor, M.D., vice president of medical affairs at Southeast. The two have began visiting job fairs in St. Louis and Columbia, Mo. to spread the word of the medical opportunities in Southeast Missouri. "We try to really sell that to individuals and a big part of it is family," says McClard.

Taylor agrees saying, they provide employment candidates with plenty of information about Cape and always answering any specific questions about the community, including school options or real estate assistance.

Like at Saint Francis, the work isn't always to land a new staff physician. Instead, Southeast might send the individual into the community to work for an existing private practice group, Taylor says.

Cape Girardeau is a "very unique medical community," says McClard. "It is important to let people know they have a great medical community behind them."

Patrick Carron, president and CEO of Perry County Memorial Hospital in Perryville, Mo., says one good method for convincing physicians to choose a location is to have other doctors meet with them. They put a strong emphasis on how great it is to work and live in Perryville, which has a population of just over 8,000.

"Sometimes we sell that small community aspect," he says. "We are comfortably located between St. Louis and Cape."

Often times, the hospital focuses on doctors they know to have an inclination to work in a rural community. For example, if a person from the community leaves for medical school, they will keep in touch while he or she is away.

While Carron agrees on the importance of selling the community, he says it is a very competitive process.

Perryville must compete with cities that are larger, with more leisure-time choices and other opportunities. That means selling the area as a great place to live.

The hospital will set up real estate tours, as well as times for the physician's spouse and children to meet principals in the schools and to meet with church representatives.

"And of course they're invited to meet different board members that might identify with them," explains Carron.

Contracts and salaries are just as competitive and Carron has to be very aware of what is going on around him in terms of economics. One priority is salary, he says.

Bringing in physicians offers a significant economic boost to the area.

"I'd guess a typical family practice doctor or internal medicine doctor might generate $2.5- to $3 million in health care related business," he says.