ATTRACTING DOCS: IT TAKES A COMMUNITY PLAN AND EFFORT

One of the hottest commodities in the United States isn't something you wear, drive or eat. It is the family doctor.

The shortage of primary care physicians -- family practitioners, general internists and pediatricians -- has raised the recruitment ante of towns across the country. Rural areas are especially hard pressed in the competition for family docs.

Southeast Missouri has struggled with these shortages as well. Recruitment videos, personal contacts and plans for a residency training program in Cape Girardeau are ways the medical community have targeted these doctors.

Southeast Missouri Hospital and St. Francis Medical Center hope to become a training group for medical and osteopathic family-practice doctors, one of the first programs of its kind in the nation. Officials would like to have the program up and running within three years.

It is just this innovative thinking the region needs to gain an edge in physician recruitment. These efforts represent a worthy investment in the community's good health.

Nationally, the reason for increasing emphasis on primary care physicians is twofold: Medical schools are graduating an increasing number of specialists, and most health care reform plans emphasize treatment by primary physicians.

But the numbers are shrinking.

Last year just 19 percent of medical school graduates opted for general medicine. Compare that to 30 years ago when 43 percent of U.S. doctors were generalists.

After years of expensive medical training, many doctors opt for higher paying fields. Specialists often earn $100,000 a year more than family doctors. Low supply and high demand means these primary doctors can pick the best deals coast to coast. It's often hard for smaller towns to match the guarantees of salary, security and working condition made in larger cities.

As a result, smaller hospitals have become more creative in recruitment efforts. A Carbondale, Ill., hospital recently mailed out informational inquiries to newspapers asking for names of hometown students attending medical schools.

More common hospital strategies include advertising in medical journals, recruitment at job fairs and medical meetings, hiring recruiting firms to find doctors, and even buying lists of doctors's name and blindly sending out thousands of letters.

Ironically, the same attributes touted for industries hold true for attracting doctors: Good schools, low crime, reasonable housing and the fact Cape Girardeau has become a real medical hub.

Innovative recruitment efforts combined with good living conditions may provide the cure for primary care doctor shortages in the region.