Physician Recruiters Share Alternative Strategies

Newsflash: the physician shortage is growing and so is its effect on marketers. The Association of American Colleges predicts that Americans will need an estimated 45,000 primary care physicians and 46,000 surgeons and medical specialists by 2020. As a result, marketers will need to shift priorities to focus on physician recruitment and retention.

Last week, HealthLeaders covered 6 Physician Retention Strategies, so this week I will discuss some recruitment strategies marketers can keep in their back pockets, using Springfield, MA-based Baystate Health, a 783-bed integrated health system, as an example.

When Emerson Moses, projects & operations manager, first began work at the Office of Physician & Advanced Practitioner Recruitment at Baystate Health six years ago, there were only two internal staff, including herself. Today, the staff has expanded to six internal employees and three recruiters, the largest it has been in 15 years, Moses estimates.

The expansion mirrors Baystate Health's increasing attention on physician recruitment. Upon expansion, cost per hire decreased by 22% (from FY2006 to FY2010) as internal recruitment staff continued to increase.

"We were able to grow because we were able to demonstrate that it was easier and more cost efficient to have a full in-house staff rather than rely on outside agencies," Moses says. "It was a lot of heavy documenting and educating physician leadership on the value we provide to physicians on how we have the knowledge of our organization and its needs compared to an outside agency."

• Increased the number of visitors by 201% in 2011 compared with 2010
• 520 visitors per month on average since Feb. 2010
• An average of 65% new visitors per month on average

• Interviews conducted dropped from 222 in 2009 to 188 in 2010, another possible correlation to the web portal helping candidates self-select
•  Number of hires increasing by 17% from FY09 to FY10
• 30% of hires sourced through online advertising, the largest source of candidates next to Referrals and BMC/Tufts Residency Programs

"By providing as much information and resources up front to physicians via our website, we also expect a bit of 'self de-selection' of those candidates who are not going to be the best fit for the organization," Moses explains.

"By controlling the information that is provided to candidates on our website, it filters out someone who may not ultimately choose our organization and, in turn, increase our acceptance rate because we are (ideally) only interviewing candidates who truly want to work at Baystate Health."

As the physician shortage goes from bad to worse, Moses recommends that in order to survive, even the larger healthcare organizations will need to start focusing on alternative resources for physician recruitment instead of just relying on word of mouth.

Smaller organizations, she says, will need to focus on building brand awareness and creative (and free) innovations. Within the next six months, she expects Baystate Health to add a live chat feature to its physician portal where potential hires can ask questions live to a recruiter.

"The live chat option is especially important for younger generations who are using smartphones for research to go online and chat with recruiters," Moses says. "Hopefully this feature will give us a step up from other recruitment websites."

One of the biggest mistakes marketers make when recruiting physicians on their website is focusing too much on promoting lifestyle, says Shawn Kessler, senior strategist at Aloysius Butler and Clark, a national consumer marketing communications agency.

"Marketers rely so much on promoting quality of life that they forget about quality of care," he says. "Physicians aren't going to think that your mountain bike trails or fishing streams are any better than their mountain bike trails or fishing streams."

Also marketers are too focused on building patient volume, when the larger issue will be accommodating staff to meet that volume, Kessler says. His top strategic tips for marketers looking to improve their physician recruitment efforts include the following:

1. Website – Physicians research. It's what they do. Make sure your website is accurate before they investigate.

2. Branding initiatives – If you are going to direct marketing tactics, you need to understand and build your organization's reputation.

3. Unity – Make sure that your website and organization are united with the same message.

4. ROI – Here's one of the most important points. A physician portal allows marketers to track and measure response rates and can manipulate their efforts as a result.

"In the past, marketing practices have asked how do you get more patients to more programs, but pretty soon you are going to see more strategies to get more physicians," Kessler says.

"You are going to see smaller health systems struggle – big players will come in and crowd the field – you have to build your brand so it won't be a significant challenge," he adds. "It's going to be a significant investment and there's no quick solution, [marketers] should start looking into it now."

I agree with Kessler. It's time for marketers to start building their recruitment strategies before they are attracting too many patients without anyone to treat them.

See Also:
Buzz Survey: Physician Growth Strategy