RECRUITING OF DOCTORS TO REGION A BIG SUCCESS

It has been a successful recruiting year for the Cape Girardeau medical community.

A reception tonight held by St. Francis Medical Center and Southeast Missouri Hospital will honor 34 physicians who have begun practicing medicine in the area since October 1998.

In most years the number of new doctors recruited annually is in the teens, said Michael Anders, physician recruiter and planning specialist at St. Francis Medical Center.

Dan Berry, director of legal affairs and physician recruitment at Southeast Missouri Hospital, said the large number of new doctors is a result of continued population growth.

"We've added some specialties and added to existing services," Berry said.

A new hospitalist program that operates at both hospitals added six physicians, and there has been an emphasis on increasing the number of primary care doctors, Anders said.

There are also several new specialists who have come to the area in the last year, including pediatricians, a surgeon, an anesthesiologist, a psychiatrist and an electrophysiologist.

Even considering that figures from the Cape Girardeau County Area Medical Society show two doctors have retired and five have left the area since October 1998, that is still a substantial gain in new physicians. The total number of doctors in Cape Girardeau County is 206, said the Missouri Department of Health.

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.

Either way, Anders said, there has to be a community need.

"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."

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

"It's important to keep in mind that we don't recruit for the hospital but for the community," Anders said. "We recruit because there is a community need," Anders said.

Once a need is established hospitals generally use an outside recruiting firm to help with the search, Anders said.

From there it is like any other hiring process, Anders said. Resumes are received and sorted through, and the top candidates are brought in for interviews.

Doctors recruited to the area are sometimes recent medical school graduates. Others are doctors in an established practice who want a change.

Anders said the ease with which new doctors can be lured to the area depends on the specialty. The more specialized a physician's certification, the more likely that doctor is to go to a larger city with a bigger population base, Anders said. But he noted that most medical specialties are located in the Cape Girardeau market area.

On the other hand, family practice doctors can easily set up a practice in a city the size of Cape Girardeau, but there is a great demand across the country for family practice doctors.

"Our emphasis for the next 24 months is to recruit family practice-primary care physicians," Anders said.

NEW DOCTORS

New physicians to the Cape Girardeau are since October 1998:

Suha Alkadry, MD

Donna J. Allmon, MD

Jeffrey P. Appleman, DPM

Kathleen K. Appleman, DPM

Lee M. Armstrong, MD

Beverly L. Brown, MD

Mablene Buggs, MD

Susan L. Burton, MD

B. Dawn Caruso, MD

Paul A. Caruso, MD

Robert F. Cerza, MD

Joseph K. Davidson, MD

Adam Deutchman, MD

Kevin D. Dishman, MD

Daniel G. Domjan, MD

Gene P. Fioretti, MD

Theodore J. Grieshop, MD

Jay A. Hudson, MD

Trenton C. Jones, MD

Michael S. Killen, MD

Richard F. Klonoski, MD

J. Thadeus Lake, MD

Deborah D. Price, DO

Frederic A. Rawlins, DO

John F. Rigdon, MD

Bradley D. Robison, MD

Karen Ryan, MD

Stephen J. Saxe, MD

Bennie Lee Scott, MD

Teena L. Sharrock, MD

Richard C. Smith, MD

Scott J. Weiner, MD

Bruce R. Westcott, MD

Stephen Whistler, MD