So, the executive team announced the results from their planning sessions and the charge to recruit more physicians is your responsibility. Save yourself and your organization considerable frustration: Take the time to prepare thoroughly.

Check for existing data that determined the recruitment charge and if there’s limited information, do your homework:

1. Determine how many physicians have been recruited in the past five years and for which specialties.
2. What’s currently happening with those physicians? Are they still committed to your hospital? Are they producing significant volume?
3. Compare what has been done in the recent past with the current medical staff development plan.

Ask the hard questions throughout the process; make sure the flow of new physicians is not a revolving door. Try to understand the rationale behind unsuccessful recruitment and tenure and make sure these concerns are communicated to the executive team. It’s not your job to solve these problems, but rather to alert others that they need addressing. Update the medical staff development plan with new information, including new physicians who have joined the community through other channels.

When you have firm recruitment targets in place, review what worked well in the recruitment process in the past and use this analysis to set your course. One simple method is to create a chart outlining the following points:

• Number of CVs received by source type
• Number of telephone interviews
• Number of site visits
• Number of offers extended
• Dates of initiated searches to completion dates
• Length of time from contract signature to launch of the physician practice

Review the above and you’ll see where your existing recruitment process has strengths and where you’ll need to give your attention to improve some shortcomings.

At the same time, ensure that you have a recruitment policy for your organization. Does it need updating? Are there other materials that need enhancements? Be sure to check on your promotional material (letters, flyers, advertisements, brochures, organization profile, and so forth).

Once you’ve selected the framework of your process, you’ll need to establish the timetable and assign responsibility for each step in the recruitment process. Make sure the touch points for your candidates are well informed on the importance of the process and recruit key organization representatives to help turn your candidate into a heavy volume referral source:

Recruitment Process Steps

• How is the recruitment process initiated?
• What are the promo materials/ad placements?
• How are CVs reviewed and credentials checked?
• How are initial phone screenings conducted?
• How are site visits arranged?
• How is visit feedback collected/disseminated?
• How is the offer extended?
• How are communication/negotiation issues addressed?
• How is orientation/referral development conducted?

Now, you and your organization are ready to put your plan into motion. Good luck!

Allison McCarthy is Managing Consultant with Corporate Health Group - Northeast, a national healthcare consulting firm, and is based in Massachusetts. For additional information, please call 1-866-315-7774 or contact us via the Web.

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