Dr. Felisa Gilbert started accepting new patients a couple weeks ago in her new position as an internist and pediatrician with Tennessee Medicine and Pediatrics.
She is settling into her new Murfreesboro home and in her new career, working in the specialty she was trained in.
“Because of my specialty, which is medicine and pediatrics, there is not a lot of med/peds practices out there,” Gilbert said of why she wanted to join the practice with offices in Smyrna and soon to have offices on Medical Center Parkway.
Gilbert, who previously worked in pediatrics at Centennial Medical Center’s Spring Hill walk-in clinic, learned about the available position through a flyer sent to her home by an outsource recruiter contracted by Middle Tennessee Medical Center.
“That is why I jumped on it when I saw it,” she said.
MTMC, a member of the Saint Thomas Health Services and Ascension Health, actively recruits physicians and nursing staff for the growing Murfreesboro market.
The hospital employs physician and nursing recruiters who facilitate the process of securing highly trained medical personnel for the growing medical facility. Recruiters work as a liaison between existing medical practices and job candidates. They often provide first-year income guarantees for physicians and relocation assistance for both physicians and nurses.
“The demand for physicians is driven off of population,” said Anna Stewart, MTMC physician recruiter.
“We have had to be in an aggressive recruitment mode because of population growth.”
This population growth has especially created a demand for primary care physicians and a growing need in several specialties.
MTMC’s new 286-bed, 600,000-square-foot facility — construction slated to begin June 2008 — is causing the hospital to step up its physician recruitment. At the same time, the new state-of-the–art facility is expected to make recruiting easier.
MTMC assesses its existing physicians to determine any voids or needs. The hospital has more than 300 staff physicians. Medical groups often approach the hospital’s recruiter to facilitate the process of finding appropriate candidates.
“You have to be a really good listener,” Stewart said. “It is kind of like matchmaking.”
Searches are conducted through the Internet and outsourced recruiters.
October through February is the primary recruiting period for physicians, Stewart said, because that is when candidates are completing their residencies.
Stewart said she could easily be working with or communicating with 25-30 doctors at once. It could take as long as nine months from an initial contact with a physician to bringing him or her on staff.
MTMC recruited 15 new physicians for the fiscal year ending June 30. Additionally, between 35-50 physicians sought privileges to treat patients at MTMC.
Stewart said there are preliminary plans for physician recruitment for fiscal year 2008. She said there will be some openings in primary care and such specialties as cardiology and neurology.
Existing MTMC physicians and Murfreesboro are perhaps MTMC’s biggest recruitment tools.
“Murfreesboro sells itself,” Stewart said. “I think it is a great community.”
Rutherford County’s low cost of living, low crime rate and good schools make MTMC an easy sell for many physicians, Stewart said. Physicians from such states as Michigan contact the hospital because they want to relocate to the South where there are four defined seasons.
Stewart said Murfreesboro is the right size and has the amenities to recruit physicians. Rural areas are having greater difficulty attracting physicians.
Overall, MTMC is able to locate and hire physicians to fill available positions, she said.
When doctors are looking to relocate what they are looking for is an unsaturated medical market that suits their family and will allow them to pay back their education loans quickly, Stewart said.
Physicians typically change practices two or three times before they find the group or city that meets their needs.
“It is kind of like a marriage, you have to find the right fit,” Stewart said.
“People have really sought out this community,” she said. “Nashville is a more saturated medical market.”
Murfreesboro and the rest of Rutherford County is a developing medical community.
Physicians are averaging $150,000 in debt when they leave their residency so they are working hard to pay it off.
MTMC offers income guarantees for recruited physicians, which serves as a loan for physicians as they set up their practice for the first year. Physicians pay back the loan by staying in their position for an agreed period of time.
A primary care physician would typically be guaranteed to make between $120,000 and $150,000 his or her first year affiliated with MTMC.
Nursing recruitment — focus on area students
Jocelyn Wires doesn’t like the status quo.
Like the health care industry itself, she is always adapting.
After obtaining her master’s degree in nursing, Wires looked to obtain a leadership position in women’s health.
“This position became available and I jumped on it,” she said of a patient care director position in MTMC’s labor and delivery unit. Wires also liked Murfreesboro’s family friendly atmosphere.
Previously, she worked at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Evansville, Ind., for 28 years. Additionally, since 2001 she has worked part time at Baptist Hospital in Nashville.
Wires said MTMC’s recruiting services made the decision to change jobs and the moving process much easier.
“They asked me what it would take to get me here,” she said of her initial MTMC visit.
MTMC isn’t an exception in the nationwide nursing shortage that is expected to reach levels of 340,000 by 2020, according to information compiled by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.
“Staffing ratios are definitely patient safe,” assured Rajayna Riley, recruitment manger for Saint Thomas Health Services, but there are always open positions.
There is a more acute need for nurses with specialized training such as intensive care.
MTMC has around 450 nurses currently on staff.
Nurse recruitment is more focused on students that highly trained nurses.
MTMC attempts to reach nursing students while they are still taking classes. Many students from such institutions as MTSU and Motlow State Community College do daily clinical rotations at the hospital.
While the students are at the hospital, MTMC nurses and staff mentor them and try to make them feel comfortable working at the hospital.
Base pay for nursing graduates is between $37,000 and $40,000.
Recruitment also is facilitated through online job postings, mailers and the use of offsite recruiters.
MTMC and other hospitals in the Saint Thomas Health System host nursing fairs together. A recent job fair resulted in the hiring of 40 nurses for the system.
“We hired over half of what walked into our doors,” Riley said.
To make the interview process and accepting the job even easier, MTMC also does on the spot interviewing for nurse candidates, offers relocation assistance and flexible work schedules.
It typically can take less than three weeks to hire and bring a new nurse on staff, Riley said.
Wires said her primary concern when looking at taking a position at MTMC was the physical moving of her possessions and the selling of her home.
MTMC offered her a relocation package that worked for her.
“They do take a proactive approach,” Wires said.
Erin Edgemon can be reached at 869-0812 and at eeddgemon@murfreeasboropost.com.
On the Web:
www.mtmc.org
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