NAPR NewsFLASH Volume 5, Issue 10

WEDNESDAY, MAY 2, 2007
8:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.	Registration Open
8:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.	School of Healthcare Recruitment: 101 Beginning Recruitment
6:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.	NAPR/NALTO Welcome Reception

THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2007
7:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.	Registration Open
7:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.	Exhibit Hall Open
8:00 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.	NAPR Annual Business Meeting
8:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.	Opening Remarks
9:00 a.m. - 10:15 a.m.	General Session * "Physician Workforce: Is a Shortage Looming?"
10:45 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.	Concurrent Sessions * "Streamlining Expenses" * "Behavioral Based Interviewing"
10:45 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.	NALTO Business Meeting & Luncheon (Members Only) Sponsored by Elsevier
11:45 a.m. - 1:15 p.m.	NAPR Awards Luncheon
1:15 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.	* "NALTO Session: Contracting"
1:15 p.m. - 2:15 p.m. 2:15 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.	* "Measuring Your Results" * "NAPR Town Hall Meeting: Issues of Importance to NAPR"
3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.	* "Retaining Your Best" * "NALTO Session: JCAHO Staffing Certification"
6:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.	Disney Theme Park Offsite Event Sponsored by PhysicianWork

FRIDAY, MAY 4, 2007
7:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.	Registration Open
7:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.	Exhibit Hall Open
8:30 a.m. - 9:45 a.m.	General Session * Customer Service/Disney Style
10:15 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.	* "Communication Skills" * "NALTO Session”
1:00 p.m. - 2:45 p.m.	General Session * "Panel-Future of the MGMA/NAPR First Year Compensation Survey"
2:45 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.	General Session * "Advertising and Sourcing"
4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.	General Session * "Working Together: Facility-Based and Fee-for-Service Recruitment Firms"
5:00 p.m. - 5:15 p.m.	Closing Remarks/Drawing
5:15 p.m.	Convention Adjourns/Open Evening

SATURDAY, MAY 5, 2007
8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.	School of Healthcare Recruitment: 201 Level

Click here to download the registration form!

QuickFlash

The NAPR Pulse (newsletter) is interested in receiving newsworthy information about our members. Please email Tammy Jamison, editor of the NAPR Pulse, at tammy.jamison@lvh.com with announcements, awards, promotions, or anything else that is fit to print. For advertising information, please contact Elaine York at NAPR Headquarters for rates and deadlines.

New Cooperative Advertising Program Produces More Candidates

The NAPR knows that “education” and “ethics” are high on everyone’s priority lists. “Service” sometimes appears to take a back seat, but be assured that NAPR Services, the NAPR subsidiary, is always exploring ways of providing more value for your membership dollar.

The lifeblood of our industry is identifying qualified and interested candidates. In a market where identifying reasonable candidates is ever more difficult, NAPR Services is offering a new program combining low cost with effective candidate identification.

This program, which is outlined below, is inexpensive – only $100 – and productive.

Click here to download the sign-up form to reserve your place.

The first ad will be in for Orthopedic Surgeons. We'll run a half-page ad in the AAOS Job Finder for those who will attend the annual AAOS meeting in February!

How it works:
• NAPR purchases 1/2 page ad in a specialty journal.
• Ad promotes a password-secured internet site.
• Site is accessible to doctor candidates.
• Site is accessible to NAPR participating members only.
• Each member lists an unlimited number of jobs (which can be modified as often as desired).
• Doctor candidates will respond directly to YOU, the member organization.
• Doctors will search for jobs by geography.
• Each internet advertising site will be limited to one specialty.
• Your cost is $100.
• Subsequent specialties will be announced and a schedule of specialty ads will be e-mailed to you (a minimum number of organizations will be required).
• These 1/2 page specialty ads will be placed in journals to coincide with national specialty meetings.
• Again, the cost of participation will be $100 per specialty.
• The job/ad sites will remain active for 6 months; after that period new ads will be placed and member participation will again be solicited.

1. NAPR has taken a 1/2 page (a $1,500 value) in AAOS Job Finder promoting a special and unique internet jobs site exclusively for orthopedic surgeons.

2. The journal ad will direct the doctors to your orthopedic jobs which will be listed geographically.

3. The doctors will respond directly to you.

4. You may list an unlimited number of orthopedic jobs.

CRITICAL INFORMATION: This ad (in the February 2007 publication) will be distributed FREE to each orthopedic surgeon attending the Annual American Academy of Orthopedic Surgery Convention in San Diego.

MINIMUM COST - MAXIMUM EXPOSURE. Remember you pay only $100. We must have your commitment by January 15, 2007.

Click here to download the sign-up form to reserve your place.

Orthopedic Boom Continues:
More active lifestyle in aging population, improved surgical techniques lead to local hospitals beefing up their operations in order to keep pace

By Shannon Mortland

There's no need to sit around with achy jonts when surgery can fix it. That's the mindset of many Americans today, and one that's prompting hospitals to cash in on the popularity of orthopedic surgery.

Many local hospitals in recent months and years have put a greater emphasis on orthopedic surgery by starting orthopedic institutes, recruiting researchers and surgeons in the specialty, and offering the latest orthopedic procedures.

For example, St. Vincent Charity Hospital this summer launched a 21-bed Spine and Orthopedic Institute and University Hospitals Geauga Medical Center opened its Center for Spine and Orthopaedics, also referred to as its "Ortho Hotel" because it offers its patients pampering amenities such as flowers from the surgeon.

"We're seeing a huge increase in people around the country who want orthopedic surgery," said Dr. Randall Marcus, Charles H. Herndon professor and chairman of orthopedics at Case Western Reserve University. He's also chairman of orthopedic surgery at University Hospitals Case Medical Center.

In the last four years, UH Case Medical Center has hired 10 new orthopedic surgeons and four orthopedic researchers to handle the increased demand, Dr. Marcus said. UH's main campus now has 27 surgeons and 10 basic scientists, a staff that likely will grow as surgical calendars fill up, he said.

Much of that demand can be attributed to baby boomers, who are healthier and more active at 60 years old than the generations before them and want to stay that way, said Dr. Joseph Iannotti, Maynard Madden professor and chairman of the orthopedics department at the Cleveland Clinic.

"They're demanding," Dr. Iannotti said. "If they have pain, they believe they should be pain-free."

The Clinic has taken advantage of the higher demand by increasing its number of full time orthopedic surgeons over the last seven years by 65%, to 68 from the 41 in place when Dr. Iannotti took over the department. He said the department will continue to grow.

However, it isn't just the baby boomers who are fueling the market. Their love for staying active seems to have rubbed off on their children.

The Sporting Life
"There's a growing population of 30- and 40-year-olds who are still playing basketball, still playing rugby and all those contact sports, and they're still getting injuries," said Dr. Scott Weiner, chairman of the Department of Orthopedics at Akron's Summa Health System. Summa in September hired two more orthopedic surgeons and plans to add at least two more to its staff of 35 in the next two years, he said.

Whereas 20 years ago people adhered to their doctors' orders of giving up contact sports at a certain age or following an injury, today's patients aren't willing to change their lifestyles, Dr. Marcus said. Orthopedic surgery also is more enticing these days because less invasive surgeries have lowered morbidity rates and joint replacements last longer, he said.

Dr. Weiner said orthopedics is one of the most profitable service lines for hospitals, which is why they're all vying for patients. The money made on orthopedics can be used to finance other necessary services, such as trauma, that lose money for hospitals, he said.

But don't look for the orthopedics gravy train to keep rolling indefinitely, warns Dr. Brendan Patterson, chairman of orthopedics at MetroHealth Medical Center.

"Orthopedics at one time was exceedingly lucrative," Dr. Patterson said. "More recently, with changes in reimbursements (from Medicare and health insurance companies) and the growth in expensive technology, profit has declined to a reasonable level. It's not at the level it once was."

Dr. Iannotti agrees, saying it's hard to know if orthopedics will be as lucrative for hospitals in the future.

"At some point, we're going to bottom out because reimbursement can't keep up with the cost of technology," he said.

Appealing to the aging
Dr. Patterson said hospitals are trying to make up for the lower reimbursements by negotiating better payments from insurance companies and by performing more surgeries. He said hospitals throughout the region are heavily marketing orthopedic surgery to local residents.

Indeed, Geauga Medical Center advertises free information sessions on various orthopedic surgeries in local newspapers and on the Internet, said Donna Goddard, a registered nurse and director of business development at the hospital.

Such direct-to-consumer marketing seems to be working. Dr. Weiner said many patients come to him knowing exactly what joint replacement they want and what company makes it.

But marketing can only go so far, especially with Northeast Ohio's population remaining flat or even shrinking in some areas, Dr. Patterson said.

"We're aging in Northeast Ohio, but we don't have that balance of younger people moving to the region or staying," he said. "With everyone grabbing at the pie, it's just getting smaller for all of us."

Family Doctors in Short Supply

Home News Tribune Online 09/27/06

A doctors group expects a serious shortfall of family physicians in at least five states by 2020.

Population growth and rising numbers of elderly people in Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Texas and Idaho will make the need in those states most critical, said Dr. Perry Pugno of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

"As Americans age, they need more health-care interventions, and primary care is the most cost-effective way to help them maintain their health," Pugno said.

The number of U.S. medical graduates going into family medicine has been falling - by more than 50 percent from 1997 to 2005 - with many young doctors preferring specialities that pay better and offer more control over work hours.

The group scheduled a rally in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, timed to coincide with the release of its workforce report, which estimates the number of family doctors must grow by 39 percent during the next 14 years to keep up with the nation's needs. All states will need more family doctors by 2020, the report says, with Nevada topping the list.

The doctors group wants Congress to increase Medicare payments to family doctors to help ease the shortage, Pugno said. The group also urges voters to question candidates about healthcare, an issue as important to those polled by the group as the war in Iraq and terrorism, Pugno said.

There are about 100,000 licensed family doctors in the United States, a number that has been growing slightly because doctors stay in the workforce longer, said Dr. Larry Fields, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Embark on Your Next Physician Recruitment Effort Armed with Benchmarking Data

Conducted in collaboration with the National Association of Physician Recruiters, the new Physician Placement Starting Salary Survey Report spotlights critical starting-salary information for newly placed physicians. This is the first year MGMA has compiled starting-salary and benefits information by geographic region and specialty for physicians. The report also includes data on physicians who have been placed after residency or fellowship.

The report includes:

• Complete salary data on more than 1,600 physicians categorized by specialty and geographic region
• Data reported for compensation, signing bonuses and relocation expenses
• Information on first-year vacation and continuing medical education paid time off

You put it to use:

• Conduct peer comparisons to evaluate physician starting salaries
• Develop starting-salary and benefits standards for recruiting physicians
• Assess and improve your physician starting-salary and benefit package to make it as competitive as possible

The report is available to NAPR members for a special price of $120, which is $40 off the regular price. To receive this special price, use code NAP06WE03. To order, call toll-free 877.ASK.MGMA (877.275.6462) or visit the Store at www.mgma.com (enter code 6664).

Vendor Profile: AAFP

The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) is the national association of family physicians. It is one of the largest national medical organizations, with more than 94,000 members in 50 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam. Until October 3, 1971, it was known as the American Academy of General Practice. The name was changed in order to reflect more accurately the changing nature of primary health care.

The Academy was founded in 1947 to promote and maintain high quality standards for family doctors who are providing continuing comprehensive health care to the public. Other major purposes of the Academy include:

To provide responsible advocacy for and education of patients and the public in all health-related matters;
To preserve and promote quality cost-effective health care;
To promote the science and art of family medicine and to ensure an optimal supply of well-trained family physicians;
To promote and maintain high standards among physicians who practice family medicine;
To preserve the right of family physicians to engage in medical and surgical procedures for which they are qualified by training and experience;
To provide advocacy, representation and leadership for the specialty of family medicine;
To maintain and provide an organization with high standards to fulfill the above purposes and to represent the needs

The AAFP Placement Services program is an online job placement program that matches family physicians to job opportunities based on specific criteria including location, specialty, practice type and more. AAFP members can post their profiles online free of charge for employers to view. Employers can post their ads for a fee and search through our database of candidates. The program serves both clinical and faculty opportunities.

I have worked for the AAFP within the Membership Division for over nine years and am currently the Member Services Manager. Our department provides member service programs such as affinity member discount programs, awards, apparel and gift items and job placement.

For more information, contact Sherri Filipczuk, AAFP Placement Services, Web: www.aafp.org/placement.xml; Email: placement@aafp.org. Phone: 800-274-2237 ext. 6815.

National Conferences of Interest

Websites that offer upcoming conference information:

The Journal of American Medical Association Calendar of Events:
http://pubs.ama-assn.org/cgi/calendarcontent

If you have questions or comments about NewsFlash, please contact: Bill Kautter at bkautter@napr.org (800-726-5613) or NewsFlash Editor Ron Watson at watson_16252@msn.com

Please note that letters and comments sent to the publisher are automatically considered for use in upcoming issues unless you expressly request that they not be used. You may request that you remain anonymous in the case that your letter or comments are used. We reserve the right to edit for brevity and/or clarity.

This eNewsletter is automatically sent to all NAPR members as an added, free benefit of membership. Non-NAPR members are invited to subscribe to this newsletter by contacting Judy Clark at jclark@napr.org.

The National Association of Physician Recruiters (NAPR), headquartered near Orlando, Florida, was founded in 1984, for the purpose of creating a national organization through which professional physician recruiters could work together to maintain standards of excellence within the industry and ensure the highest degree of quality in recruitment services. Today, the NAPR represents over 400 members, including recruitment firms, in-house staff physician recruiters, as well as contract staffing and management, trying to make a difference in the physician recruiting industry.

NAPR, 222 S. Westmonte Dr, Ste 101, Altamonte Springs, FL 32714, 800-726-5613.