The connection could make you $10,000 richer thanks to a recruitment program enacted by Hancock County Health System.
HCHS is offering $10,000 to anyone who refers a qualified physician who is then hired to practice for the organization.
“The best way to get a physician to come to a community and stay in the community is a community that they grew up in or grew up close to,” said Vance Jackson, Administrator/CEO, Hancock County Health System. “We are hoping people in this community and our staff know someone who grew up here or near here.”
The referral program was created because of a physician shortage in Iowa and the entire nation. A new emphasis has been placed on primary or preventative care, which in turn has raised the demand for family medicine, pediatrics and internal medicine doctors.
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High demand for these providers has made the recruitment of physicians a very competitive business.
“Typically they are offered a better financial opportunity then where they are,” Jackson said. “There are all these incentives to move and it’s a constant barrage.”
Jackson compared the process of hiring a family practice physician in 2013 to recruiting a professional athlete. He cited a recent study from the American Medical Association saying the average family physician gets two calls a week from recruiters asking if they would be interested in moving somewhere else.
The main goal of the referral program is to not only hire a quality physician but also to hire one who wants to stay.
A tool HCHS has used in the past is hiring someone who has familiarity with the area in one way or another. Every physician currently on staff at HCHS has a connection to the area.
“They are either married to someone who grew up here, or they grew up here,” Jackson said.
New facilities at HCHS are also a helpful tool to convince a potential candidate to start a practice there.
“Typically when we get a candidate here, they like it very much,” Jackson said. “We really win people over when they see the place and meet the staff.”
The referral program allows members from the community to make calls with people to personal contacts they know and is much cheaper than hiring a professional recruitment firm.
“Professional recruitment through a firm can cost anywhere between $30,000 and $40,000,” Jackson said. “The $10,000 is there as an incentive because we would pay a lot more if we recruited a physician through a professional firm.”
HCHS is looking to replace two family practice doctors who have left for other practices. One left April 2012 and the other left May 2013.
“I have been here seven years and unfortunately we have not been able to get fully staffed status,” Jackson said.
HCHS facilities include Hancock County Memorial Hospital, an outpatient rehabilitation clinic in Garner; and four primary care clinics located in Britt, Garner, Kanawha and Wesley.
Hancock County Health System is a partner with Mercy Health Network North Iowa
If you know a doctor, M.D. or D.O. call HCHS Administration at 641-843-5151 or visit the HCHS website at www.trustHCHS.com/contact-us-hancock.
Sam Jefson is a reporter for the Forest City Summit and Britt News Tribune, other Lee Enterprises newspapers.
Date: October 04, 2013