Recruiting difficult for rural hospitals

Pay a factor in landing doctors

TWIN FALLS, Idaho – Despite offers from the Emory School of Medicine in Atlanta and Stanford University Medical Center in California, Dr. Jacob DeLaRosa chose to work in Pocatello.

Associated Press
August 22, 2004

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/local/story.asp?ID=22351

The 248-bed Portneuf Medical Center snagged the heart surgeon after he fell in love with the people and the scenery.

"There was a need and there were the wonderful, wonderful surroundings and people to work with," DeLaRosa said. "People were very authentic. A handshake was a handshake. People were very real."

Portneuf has recruited 21 doctors in the past year, said Sue Gustaveson, the hospital’s recruiter.

"A lot of it is our opportunities," Gustaveson said. "We show a definite physician need."

Doctors are sometimes attracted by Idaho’s recreational opportunities. But recruiting is still a challenge for rural hospitals, which generally offer lower pay and older technology than metropolitan hospitals.

"It’s a tough environment to recruit physicians to rural areas and it’s getting worse nationally," said Alan Morgan, vice president of government affairs for the National Rural Health Association based in Kansas City, Mo., and Alexandria, Va. "You’ve got two things happening. A lot of rural physicians are serving in the military. And not just physicians, but pharmacists and others across the spectrum. It’s making the situation worse."

Some of Idaho’s rural regions simply do not have enough people to support a doctor. The small town of Council closed its critical care access hospital two years ago because it only served about two patients a day, said Steve Millard, president of the Idaho Hospital Association.

"There has to be enough people to support a full-time medical practice," Millard said. "They couldn’t make it work financially."

Today, the community has a daytime clinic run by nurse practitioners, and doctors come in once a year, Millard said.

Even in the state’s larger cities, some specialists are hard to find. Portneuf Medical Center has had a hard time trying to find a nephrologist, a doctor that specializes in kidneys.

It took the Twin Falls hospital, Magic Valley Regional Medical Center, two years to find interventional cardiologist Dan Brown, said Chief Executive Officer John Kee. The hospital has been searching for a rheumatologist for four years.

The state does have some financial advantages, said John Baker, an internist. He moved his practice to Twin Falls because he was tired of the high malpractice insurance rates in Jacksonville, Fla.

"We were tired of the premiums doubling," Baker said.

Baker, who has a clean record and practices in a low-risk specialty, was paying $32,000 a year in Florida. He decided to move to Idaho, he said, because it has state caps on malpractice awards and insurance rates are considerably lower.