NAPR/NALTO 2006 ANNUAL CONVENTION

  

Bowles Appointed to NAPR Board

MARC S. BOWLES – Biographical Sketch
 
Marc Bowles has been employed by Delta Medical Consulting for six years. Delta Medical Consulting is a physician search firm based in Dallas, Texas, that generates over $10 million annually in revenue from permanent placement business.
 
Initially, Marc was hired on as a recruiting consultant and currently is the Director of Recruiting. He directs 22 Search Personnel that phone screen over 4,500 physicians per month and coordinate 90 on-site interviews per month for 152 clients.
 
Although he has never been a keynote speaker at a conference and has never led a training session outside of NAPR, other than for the clients of Delta Medical Consulting, Marc has provided public speaking presentations to a variety of audiences on a monthly basis for the past five years. His audiences have included hospital boards, physician medical staffs, C-Level hospital administrators, in-house physician recruiters and practice managers. These presentations provide knowledge of current trends in the physician recruiting market and the process for a successful recruitment program.
 
Marc has have been in the staffing industry for eight years and for six of those years, in physician staffing with Delta Medical Consulting. He started with Delta Medical Consulting as a Search Consultant where he managed physician search activities of retained/inclusive clients for the purpose of direct hiring of physicians.
 
Marc was born in San Antonio, TX. He graduated from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX, in 1998 with a BA in Public Relations.
 

YOU ASKED FOR IT…AND NOW YOU’VE GOT IT!

Does Your Employment Agreement Comply with the U.S. Department of Labor new Laws?

Did you know that your recruiters may have to be paid on an hourly basis and may no longer be exempt from over-time regulations?
 
You may want to familiarize yourself with the following fact sheets:
 
Fact Sheet #17A: Exemption for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Computer & Outside Sales Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
And
Fact Sheet #17G: Salary Basis Requirement and the Part 541 Exemptions Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
And
Fact Sheet #17B: Exemption for Executive Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
 
For more information regarding the FLSA, visit the Wage and Hour Division’s Web site at www.wagehour.dol.gov or call the toll free help line, available from 8 am to 5 pm in your time zone, at 1-866-4US-WAGE (1-866-487-9243).
 
When the state laws differ from the federal FLSA, an employer must comply with the standard most protective to employees. Links to your state labor department can be found at www.dol.gov/esa/contacts/state_of.htm.
 
Also, as we business owners like to say, C.Y.A. Consult with your attorney on the new laws and regulations.
 
Jane Born, CEO, Born & Bicknell, Inc.

NAPR Website Security Enhancements
 
NAPR has implemented a new password change requirement to help protect your NAPR Website account(s) from unauthorized access.
 
Passwords must now be changed every 90 days and be a minimum of 6 characters in length. The system will automatically prompt you when a change is required, but you can still change at anytime by clicking on the Change Password link on the Main Menu.
 
Also, if you are not currently utilizing sub-accounts, we strongly urge you to do so. Moreover, it is to your benefit:

• In the event that someone within your organization leaves, it is much easier to delete the sub-account than change the password to your main account and redistribute to your staff.
• Allows each sub-account user to establish their own Physician Alert settings (e-mail notification when a physician registers matching selected specialty and/or geographic settings).
• Your job postings can be "assigned' to your sub-account users so that their access is limited to the jobs they are responsible for.

NAPR Physician Employment Survey Results: 58 responses
 
(number in parenthesis is number of yes responses)
 
Have you witnessed an increasing trend in hospitals employing physicians?
65.52% (38)
 
As a percentage of total placements last year, how many physicians were employed by hospitals?
35.91%
 
Is there an increasing number of job orders that are offering hospital employment?
65.52% (38)
 
Are individual state malpractice issues increasing the number of physicians who want to be employed by hospitals?
72.41% (42)
 
Are there an increasing number of physicians asking for hospital employed structures?
79.31% (46)

Donating Medical Books & Journals to Iraq

December 2005: Donating Medical Books and Journals to Iraq -- The Need Continues
 
Susan B. Yox, RN, EdD
 
The Daily Struggle to Provide Care
 
Medical, pharmacy, nursing, dental, and veterinary professionals in Iraq struggle in their everyday quest to provide high-quality care. Besides trying to provide care in the midst of war, they must often rely on photocopies of outdated textbooks and journals in an attempt to stay up-to-date.
 
Basic medical science textbooks and journals, as well as those relating to the medical specialties, are often unavailable or are available only as well-used copies of out-of-date editions. Such texts are not published in Iraq, so Iraqi students and healthcare professionals are dependent upon those brought into the country.
 
Medscape Readers Assist
 
Beginning in 2003, Medscape has encouraged readers to assist their medical colleagues in Iraq by sending their gently used books and journals. Many have responded -- students and professors, physicians, nurses, pharmacists, medical librarians, veterinarians, and even medical publishers have packaged and mailed books and journals so that Iraqi hospitals, schools, and community clinics can add recently published texts and journals to their bookshelves. Over time a voluntary (and totally virtual) organization has developed that consists of both military personnel and civilians, designed to get the books and journals where they are needed most.
 
Many of our US military contacts have served as "brigade surgeons," meaning that they oversee the medical care provided in a particular geographic area. For example, Maj. Andrew D. Magnet, MD, PhD, an internist from Ft. Benning, Georgia, oversees the care of about 5000 troops in Baqubah, Iraq. In addition to coordinating the medical care for a full brigade of military personnel, physicians like Maj. Magnet also provide trauma care to Iraqi civilians.
 
Another part of Maj. Magnet's job has been to assess the Iraqi public health facilities in Diyala Province. He believes that providing up-to-date information is a vital component: "The Iraqi doctors are doing a fine job with limited and outdated equipment and supplies. We would give any donated books or journals to the two local hospitals as well as smaller outlying clinics."
 
 
Figure 1.: Maj. Magnet presenting donated books to physicians outside of Baqubah General Hospital, Iraq.
 
Col. John Lammie, MD, is a family practitioner, from Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, now in Taji, Iraq. Serving as the senior physician on a large base, he has provided sick and emergency care to coalition forces as well as emergency care to civilian workers. When asked his impression of the Iraqi healthcare system, he replied, "The system is in disarray, rebuilding from years of neglect and sanctions. However, the many physicians and dentists I have met have been well trained and professional. They work under extraordinary circumstances -- equipment shortages, power outages, dangerous travel, and life-threats to them and to their families. Many have endured years of suffering with minimal wages ($5.00 to $20.00/month) but they are eager to learn and to rebuild."
 
He goes on to describe how the clinics and hospitals need supplies, medications, computers with Internet access, medical and dental educational resources, books and journals, improved medical records, security, etc. The list is never-ending, but providing current books and journals is a good place to start.
 
Can You Help?
 
Most needed now are basic and specialty medical, surgical, nursing, pharmacy, dental, and veterinary texts, no more than one edition out of date (nothing published before 2000, please).
 
Basic and well-respected journals are needed as well, such as The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Annals of Internal Medicine, American Journal of Surgery, Pediatrics, American Family Physician, and similar journals in the nursing, veterinary, pharmacy, and dental fields. Ideally, journal issues should have been published within the last 3 years. Full volumes rather than random issues are best, and editions on CD or DVD are welcome.
 
If you have further questions about what may be needed or want to know the best address for your particular donation, please contact dgifford@hot.rr.com for more information. We have no mechanism for shipping your donations, so donors must pay US postage only, to the APO address. Individual packages to APO addresses must not exceed 70 pounds, and the length plus the girth of individual boxes may not exceed 108 inches. Specify the much less expensive "book rate" for books and journals and use "parcel post" for equipment donations.

Ask Miss Deed

Dear Miss Deed:
 
I was contacted by a physician recruiter about a practice opportunity with a nine-doctor group. I went on the interview and liked the opportunity. I asked the group about its financial viability - billing/collection rates, third-party payor mix, etc. While I am not an expert in business matters, I thought things were a little off.
 
I asked the recruiter if he knew of any problems within the group, financially or otherwise, and he assured me the group was sound.
 
When I joined the group, I learned there were cash-flow problems and employees and vendors were being paid late. I called the recruiter and again asked the question in light of this new information and he admitted he had heard this from another physician who had left the practice. The recruiter also admitted to having discussed the financial situation with the practice administrator since the recruiter had also had collections issues.
 
I am considering leaving this group because I feel I was misled. Can I file an ethics complaint because the recruiter knew about his client's questionable business practices?
 
Yours truly,
 
Dr. Duped