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Physician recruitment tactics offer docs peace of mind.

Article Excerpt
An aging baby boomer population. Medicare, Medicaid, and managed care reimbursement changes and cutbacks. Physicians seeking a different, more-relaxed lifestyle and, in turn, working fewer hours than their predecessors. The increased likelihood of malpractice litigation and all the associated costs.

All of these factors are contributing to what some experts predict could be a major physician shortage in coming years. At the current pace, the nation will have a shortage of 85,000-200,000 doctors by 2020, various studies predict.

As a result, in the future, you will likely have to fight harder to fill your physician openings. How can you ensure that your fight isn't for naught? By giving physicians a voice in the facility's direction and treating them like an integral part of the organization. If physicians don't feel as though they matter, they may go somewhere else.

Become 'physician-centric'

Despite the trend, many hospital executives are slow to heed the warning signs, says Todd Sagin, MD, vice president and national medical director for The Greeley Company, a division of HCPro, Inc., in Marblehead, MA.

"Most hospitals are not doing everything they should, which is at least developing a comprehensive strategic plan for physician recruitment," Sagin says. "Hospitals ought to be engaged in a board-level physician plan. We've got a shortage now,...

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