By AJ Suggs, Senior Vice President Marketing, Pinnacle Health Group
The physician shortage in rural America is growing more problematic—leaving physicians overburdened and patients at risk of not receiving care. In fact, the American Academy of Family Physicians reports that while more than 20 percent of the U.S. population lives in rural areas, only 10 percent of physicians are practicing in our smallest communities. That’s quite a disparity.
Unfortunately, there’s no single solution. However, by better understanding and identifying physicians who are innately attracted to mission, servant and pay-it-forward-type work, you can adapt your physician recruitment strategy and benefits package accordingly.
Benefits of rural healthcare can be very attractive, but you need to prove it.
The motivating factors that lead a person to pursue a career in medicine are unique to each individual, but most report feeling a deep calling to the profession. Improving the health of patients, eradicating diseases, providing hope and knowing their work will matter propels physicians through some of the most rigorous and expensive training required of any profession.
Remember the theme song from the television series Cheers?
One of the benefits enjoyed by physicians who find themselves practicing in rural communities is the ability to establish deeper relationships with patients—where everybody knows your name. In addition, the benefits of practicing in rural areas include:
- Competitive compensation package, and in many cases, loan forgiveness
- Lower cost of living
- Better work and life balance
- Improved communication channels between patients, providers and administration
- Greater focus on care with employment models reducing physician time spent on billing and licensing tasks
Drawing a connection between mission work and rural healthcare.
Some rural hospitals are now offering a unique benefit to attract physicians to their communities—extended paid-time-off for doctors to practice medicine internationally in underserved areas. With measurable success, these facilities are finding those special doctors who are deeply called to leaving this kind of legacy. And, often these doctors are surprised to learn that practicing in rural settings the rest of the year provides them with a similar level of fulfillment.
Repositioning your physician recruitment strategy.
Attracting physicians to rural settings requires more than just offering unique benefits—you’ll need to identify your target market, know how to reach them, and sell them on your opportunity. Larger hospitals in urban areas often have dedicated in-house recruitment and marketing teams, but administrators of rural hospitals are required to multi-task. This makes recruiting especially challenging and engaging a physician search firm with demonstrated expertise in rural physician recruitment may be the best course of action. Look for a firm that is active with rural healthcare associations and can provide success stories and references from hospitals similar to yours.
Develop a recruitment strategy that includes the following four steps:
- Think like a marketer and business developer. How can you identify and where can you find physicians who are likely to be a good fit for rural healthcare? There’s always been an emphasis on targeting those physicians who grew up in small towns, but how can you find physicians, residents and medical students who have spent time serving on the mission field earlier in their lives, are active in faith-based programs, have traveled internationally to remote areas or were foreign exchange students? All of these are potential fits, because they’ve demonstrated being comfortable in unfamiliar settings and having fewer conveniences available.
- Highlight the strengths of your community. Your recruiting and marketing materials needs to clearly spell out the benefits of choosing a rural career path. Investing in a robust physician recruitment section on your hospital’s website where candidates can learn more may mean the difference between responding to your recruitment solicitation and ignoring it. Statistics show that up to 80 percent of people will review a website before speaking with a representative, so it pays to highlight the benefits such as reduced crime rates, great schools, and lower cost of living. You’ll want to paint a picture of “a day in the life” of your community. Vivid images and provider videos are effective at persuading physician candidates to take a closer look.
- Deploy your best sales people. Content physicians are your best recruiters. Involve them in every stage of the recruitment process from developing marketing materials to site visits. Give potential recruits one-on-time with employed physicians to confidentially ask any questions that concern them.
- Never stop recruiting. Rural physician recruiting is tougher and it takes longer. Recruiting physicians up to two years before the end of residency is common and requires a long-term, relationship-building strategy. More rural hospitals are offering training programs onsite to encourage physicians to take a test run. Also, retention of newly recruited physicians is critical. To minimize turnover, focus on creating open lines of communication. And, consider using Locum Tenens to emphasize the importance of down time for physicians who spend greater periods of time on-call.
There’s no doubt that recruiting for rural hospitals is a challenge. Personal motivations play a big role in determining who is destined for this lifestyle. Finding physicians who are driven to work that really matters, want a career that feels like more than a paycheck and are drawn to saving rural healthcare and small towns from extinction is key.
Pinnacle Health Group offers permanent physician search, Locum Tenens and advanced practice providers. Our sister company, PhysicianCareer.com, is an industry-leading physician job board. Together, we’re committed to meeting your staffing needs. Call 800-492-7771 to learn more.