Doctors, hospitals trying to recruit professionals to the Wabash Valley

By Jan Chait
The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE July 16, 2008 08:21 pm

— Dr. Irving Haber spent most of his years in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and in the Northeast, but when a recruiter came calling in the early 1990s to entice him to Terre Haute, he took it.
The father of two young children at the time, “my wife and I thought raising our family in the Midwest would be a somewhat easy task to keep them away from crime, drugs and random violence. We also were interested in the lower cost of living [but] what’s really nice about this community is that you can raise your children here and have them go off to perform well at any of the colleges or finer institutions of learning … and do very well.”
Indeed, his two sons have flourished in Terre Haute’s educational system, with one going to Brandeis University and the other to Indiana University. And Haber likes his experiences in Terre Haute so well, Regional Hospital’s CEO, Chris Hall, calls him “one of our best recruiters.”
Haber is, of course, not an official physician recruiter. However, in his role as a rehabilitation doctor with a private practice and as medical director of inpatient rehab at Regional Hospital, he (along with his peers in the local medical community) contribute one of the elements in a multifaceted approach to entice new physicians to Terre Haute: personal experience.
With a nationwide physician shortage, “We really have to fire on all cylinders” when recruiting doctors, says Mary Fazekas, director of physician recruitment & business development for AP&S Clinic.
Lures include meetings with local doctors, facilities, technology, location, cost of living, area amenities and more.
Local hospitals and clinics aren’t expecting searches to get any easier, as the changing demographic content of the nation’s medical schools trends toward more female physicians. The current gender makeup in medical schools is about 50-50.
With a family at home, female doctors “may opt to work part time, so we have to recruit two physicians to replace one,” says Cindy Belt, professional relations specialist for Union Hospital.
Indeed, this generation of doctors consider lifestyle issues, says Fazekas. They want to spend more time with their families and less time working crazy hours. That’s why affiliation with a large practice, such as AP&S, is attractive: There are more doctors to take turns filling in for their colleagues during non-office hours.
People involved in physician recruitment look at many factors in determining needs. Certainly, community needs are one of the top priorities.
Hill noted that there is a national data bank that includes population-physician ratio and demographics, “sometimes it’s not just numbers; it’s how to take care of our population.”
An older population, such as we have in the Wabash Valley, a higher ratio of cardiologists and retinal specialists may be needed while in an area with a younger population, pediatricians may be more in demand.
“We have a lot of elderly people,” says Donna Mansard, director of physician services for Regional Hospital. “They have more medical problems, so more doctors are needed.”
How long does it take to get in to see a doctor? For example, have you tried to book an appointment with a dermatologist lately? “We have two dermatologists,” Mansard says. “One is booked a year out and the other six months out.”
“One of our real challenges has been gastroenterology,” Fazekas says. “There are five in town and they’re all very busy. Not that the community is woefully underserved, but we need one.”
In addition to keeping an eye on the age of the community, those involved in physician recruitment keep an eye on the age of their doctors, too. “It takes a long time to recruit specialties,” Fazekas says, so doctors’ ages also are taken into account as recruiters anticipate having to replace a retiring doctor down the road.
As far as the recruitment process itself goes, methods range from asking area doctors if they have any friends who would like to locate here to using a recruiting firm or, in the case of a hospital that belongs to a corporation (such as Regional), which has a recruitment department. Or all of the above.
“There are two types of recruitment firms,” Fazekas says: “Contingency firms, where they send us [information about the doctor] and get paid if we hire that person, or retained services firms, which are paid on a monthly basis … and they really go out and look.”
Fazekas prefers to go the retained services route and, in particular, a particular person at a particular firm.
The person in question has been a recruiter for 10 years, is from St. Louis and went to DePauw University, has a brother who played football for Indiana State University and his wife worked in the area.
“He knows the community; he knows the challenges,” Fazekas says. “He’s visited the doctors, knows what equipment we have, knows how far it is to the cities.” In other words, he knows the area.
Doctors can pretty much go anywhere there is a medical practice, which would be … well, everywhere. You’ve got to have an edge.
One might be location — which could be a desire to locate in an area where skiing is plentiful or near a beach or the mountains. More than likely, however, it’s from a desire to be close to family or near their alma mater.
“Doctors tend to practice within 50 miles of where they grew up or where they trained,” Fazekas says. “Probably more where they got their education.” The number of family practice doctors in the Wabash Valley can probably attest to that: There’s a family practice residency program in Terre Haute.
Does the doctor want to be busy or have more free time? They’re likely to be busier in a smaller market, because there tend to be fewer physicians to go around.
Family life is important, as Haber noted. Terre Haute has that small-town flavor with a low cost of living, but with many of the cultural activities available in larger cities. And if you want to visit a large city, there are several — including Indianapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, Louisville and Cincinnati — not that far away. They can live in the middle of town or in the county and not be that far away from work.
Spouses are wined and dined along with the doctor being recruited, with special attention paid to their interests.
And there are the little things you might not even think about.
“They love Baesler’s!” Fazekas says. And the Clabber Girl museum. And Sycamore Farms. Not to mention Sushi Umi, the Black Angus and the Apple Club. And the cultural events at the colleges. And the proximity to the Indianapolis airport. “We do really well with real estate,” she added. “There are a lot of choices.”
As far as the medical side of the community … well, there is what Belt calls “the icing one the cake; the big, shiny bow on the package: a big, brand new hospital” scheduled to open on Union Hospital’s campus in January 2010.
“That new hospital represents the tremendous vision of our board. It shows we have a great future,” she added. “It creates excitement. It’s hard for me to understand why a physician wouldn’t locate here.”
There are benefits to the community from having physicians come from all over, too, says Haber.
“Part of the richness of recruiting people from other medical communities is that they do have different learning,” he says. “The diversity you get by having physicians here who did their training at Mayo Clinic or at Stanford or at Cedars Sinai or Texas Medical Center at Houston adds a tremendous dimension to our medical community. It really does make a difference to have a cross-section of physicians who can offer a spectrum of different ideas and approaches.”
In fact, Haber got his training at the same rehabilitation center that the late Christopher “Superman” Reeves went to after a horseback-riding accident left him paralyzed.
And are we getting some new doctors in? Oh, yes. Between now and October, we will welcome, at the minimum, a pediatrician, surgical podiatrist, orthopedic surgeon, and specialists in interventional pain management and in hand surgery.
The five new doctors will be with AP&S. That’s not to say there aren’t more on the way; just that those are the only known newcomers. Regional Hospital, for example, “has 10 searches going on right now,” Mansard says. “Nothing we can share, but we do have some in the pipeline.”
And you can bet that all of the places have multiple lines in the water, trying to pull in as many “keepers” as they can.

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