FEBRUARY

Vol 6, Issue 1

Here’s What You Can Expect at the
NAPR/NALTO 2007 Annual Convention

This comprehensive program addresses pertinent issues for search firms, in-house staff physician recruiters, Locum Tenens recruiters, as well as contract staffing and management.

Don't miss out in attending the NAPR/NALTO Annual Convention in Orlando, FL, May 2-5, 2007! Based on your feedback, we are focusing on one big meeting per year. The Annual Convention is your chance to keep current on what's happening in your industry!

WEDNESDAY, MAY 2, 2007
8:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.	Registration Open
5:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.	Exhibit Hall Open
6:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.	NAPR/NALTO Welcome Reception (Sponsored by New England Journal of Medicine)
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
7:30 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.	Continental Breakfast with Exhibitors
8:00 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.	NAPR Annual Business Meeting
8:30 a.m. - 10:15 a.m.	Opening General Session - Keynote Speaker: "Is a Physician Shortage Looming?"
10:15 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.	Refreshment Break with Vendors
10:45 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.	Concurrent Sessions: "Streamlining Expenses and Maximizing Profits" "Behavioral-Based Interviewing: The Magic in the Match"
10:45 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.	NALTO Business Meeting & Luncheon (NALTO Members Only)
11:45 a.m. - 1:15 p.m.	NAPR Awards Luncheon
1:15 p.m. - 2:15 p.m.	Session: "High Performance Recruiting Systems"
1:15 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.	NALTO Session: "What's in Your Contract?"
2:15 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.	Session: "NAPR Town Hall Meeting: Issues of Importance to NAPR"
3:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.	Refreshment Break with Exhibitors
3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.	Concurrent Sessions: "Retaining Your Shining Stars" "Best Practices for Locum Tenens Organizations"
6:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.	Disney Theme Park Offsite Event (Sponsored by PhysicianWork.com)
FRIDAY, MAY 4, 2007
7:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.	Exhibit Hall Open
7:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.	Registration Open
7:30 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.	Continental Breakfast with Exhibitors
8:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.	General Session - Keynote Speaker: "The Disney Approach to Customer Loyalty"
10:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.	Refreshment Break with Exhibitors
10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.	General Session: "The Disney Approach to Quality Service"
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.	Box Lunch with Exhibitors
1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.	General Session: "How to Use Benchmarking Data for Placements (and How You Can Contribute Your Data)"
2:30 p.m. - 2:45 p.m.	Break
2:45 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.	General Session: "Physician Sourcing - The New Magic Act!"
4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.	General Session: "Fee-for-Service and In–House Recruiters- Can They Work Together?"
5:00 p.m. - 5:15 p.m.	Closing Remarks/Drawing
5:15 p.m.	Convention Adjourns

Convention Program (PDF) full details & online registration

Both NAPR and NALTO have made a commitment to offer the NAPR/NALTO School of Healthcare Recruitment at the joint annual convention and hope recruiters new to the industry or needing a “back-to-basics” refresher will take advantage of the  NAPR/NALTO School of Healthcare Recruitment that is held one day prior and one day after the annual convention. Each school course has a separate registration fee.

NAPR/NALTO 2007 School of Healthcare Recruitment
101 Course - Beginner: May 2, 2007
201 Course - Advanced: May 5, 2007
Buena Vista Palace Hotel & Spa • Orlando, Florida

Click here (PDF) for link to School Brochure & Registration

---

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.

---

Educating Recruiters?

By D.R. Richards, Education Committee Chair, NAPR

As the Chairman of the NAPR Education Committee, I would like to offer each and every one of you reading this article the opportunity to make more $$$. The Education Committee is seeking to fill vacancies on our sub-committees. One of the new committees will be an Internet Training Committee. This committee will be working on Webinars. We would like to produce some training Webinars. These Webinars would be written and produced by and for the NAPR members. This way the NAPR members who want to take advantage of the opportunity to become better recruiters are able to learn at their own pace and whenever they have the time incur very little expense. Another way we will do Webinars is with arranging to partner with other trainers like Barb Bruno and Rick Farrell. These folks are already doing Webinars and other training programs with great success.  Both of these Master Trainers have agreed to partner with the NAPR for training programs and there are other people whom we are speaking with. 

The other sub-committee will be for a Fall Education Seminar somewhere yet to be determined. Our thought is to have an Education Seminar that can be offered at several central locations from time to time to save on the costs for everyone. No one wants to spend a lot of $$ on transportation, hotel, and meals if you don’t have to. So this committee will be working on Education Seminars for the NAPR. 

We need your HELP!!! The people who have volunteered so far will still be working on the many projects we already started in 2005 -- the School of HealthCare Recruiting and the Annual Convention. The only way we can afford to produce the Webinars and also Regional Education Seminars is if we get you to volunteer your time and energy. Without you there is no reason to do additional education programs. Please call or email me at (800) 506-8482 or dr@tivahealthcare.com. I look forward to hearing from you soon. I am excited about the upcoming Annual Convention in Orlando and hope to see many of you there in Orlando in May 2007.

---

Recruiting Physicians Today: Due Diligence on the Internal Front Enhances Recruiting Success

Reprinted from January-February 2004 issue

In every aspect of health care today, competition is intense. Physicians must continue to grow their practices while payers continue to reduce reimbursement rates. Increasing patient loads means increasing the staff to care for them. While health care groups struggle with the workforce shortage in nursing and technical staff, having an adequate number of physicians is becoming an ever-present challenge as well.

The first step in ensuring a successful recruitment effort is to assess how the organization is structured, positioned, and disciplined to be effective.

Know Your Market Place: Physicians typically make recruitment decisions based on their geographic preferences, and every locale has its pros and cons. An organization needs to understand what implications these preferences will have on a specific search. In a search conducted for a New England hospital, for example, we presented data that showed the number of practicing internal medicine (IM) physicians in the nation, then the number that practiced locally in the state. We also showed the number of IM physicians in other states that had a possible affinity to the region based on their place of birth, education, or training location. This information not only helped target the prospecting activities, but it also helped the organization understand the competition it would face while conducting the search process.

As recruitment begins, matching the analysis of the marketplace against a prospective physician’s wants and needs allows a health care organization to be better prepared to: respond to a candidate’s question; know the most effective methods for sourcing candidates; and set clear expectations about the time frame needed for the search.

Everyone in the organization also needs to speak knowledgeably about the medical practice climate of the area (i.e., merges and acquisitions, economic issues, malpractice costs, HMO penetration, etc) and know what aspects of the medical practice are positive in your area versus other regions of the country. Also, a practice group should have a plan in place to manage those regional economic aspects that are weak. Be prepared to share those weaknesses upfront with candidates and discuss what is being done to counter the current situation.

Positioning the Practice Opportunity: To attract quality candidates, an organization needs to offer an appealing practice environment. Take a close look at what your practice offers from the eyes of a newcomer. Prospective physicians are looking for sound financial practices, existing demand for their specialty, strong operational support systems, and balanced call schedule.

Also note that compensation today includes not only a base salary but the entire financial package. Be prepared with dollar values for the benefits offered, including insurance coverage and malpractice. Review the local and national markets as well to ensure your practice is competitive. Signing bonuses are becoming quite popular, and paid relocation is assumed in today’s market. Specialty areas such as radiology, cardiology, and some surgical specialties are growing rapidly with the demand outpacing supply. Don’t assume that the financial package you put together a couple of years ago is still relevant in today’s marketplace.

Prepare Your Recruitment Team: Recruitment is a team effort, and everyone -- including current physicians and administration -- needs to work in tandem to demonstrate their commitment and support of the process. Ensure that each team member clearly understands his or her role, how the recruitment process works, and how the practice should be positioned for the prospective physician.

An effective way to get everyone on board is to conduct an internal orientation to review the marketplace dynamics, how the group will approach the process, and the human and financial costs associated with recruitment -- successful or not. A discussion would likely include the following: who will solicit candidates and how this soliciting will be done, which physicians will do the initial screening of candidates, and who will participate in on-site visits. Other important points to discuss and clarify would include who will take the lead in collecting feedback from the group on the “fit” of the candidate and who will manage contract negotiations.

Sales is a critical element in the recruitment process. Your recruitment team is selling the benefits of your organization in every meeting, phone call, and written communication. Ensure that the recruitment team members have strong interpersonal skills and an ability to listen carefully and ask thoughtful questions.

Interacting with Candidates: Unless a candidate is local, it is more cost effective to conduct an initial screening interview on the telephone before incurring the expense of a site visit. Select a key member of the practice to have the initial conversation with the candidate. The two parties would then need to mutually agree that there is a good fit and that advancing to a site visit makes sense.

The on-site interview process is typically a minimum of two visits and allows everyone to assess if they think it would be a good clinical, philosophical, and cultural fit. It is also an opportunity to showcase the practice group’s community in terms of housing, education, and professional opportunities for family considerations.

If there is agreement to continue, the practice group should be prepared to extend an offer to the candidate on the second visit. This means having documents prepared, including statistics demonstrating patient demand, group financials, sample marketing plans, and a draft contract. And then, the close: make sure to make offer and ask for an answer.

To ensure an effective closing process, however, remember to provide some downtime during the second site visit. This will give the practice partners time to assess whether the group is prepared to extend the contract offer and for the physicians to assess whether he or she is ready to accept said offer. Make sure this time is specifically built into the schedule, so the practice partners can make a decision on the offer before the prospective physician completes his or her visit.

Recruitment Is a Learning Process: Spending time assessing your recruitment practice is an eye-opening experience for any organization. You’ll find out things about your team you may have not realized. Every practice opportunity has some rough spots. The key is to manage them effectively, and this includes an organizational review to ensure there is the following: Clarity about who you want and what you have to offer; a good opportunity; a market-competitive financial package; effective relationship sales skills; internal commitment to the process; a targeted approach; and solid organizational skills.

Remember that recruitment is a team effort, and it takes commitment to make it work. It would be great if we could wave a magic wand and have the perfect candidate appear before us. But in the absence of that, do your best to nurture an environment where discipline, diligence, and a lot of diplomacy come together to bring about the desired results.

Source: Kriss Barlow, R.N., M.B.A. and Allison McCarthy, M.B.A, are consultants with Corporate Health Group. The firm provides consultation for customer strategies involving physicians, employers, and consumers. Please feel free to contact them at kbarlow@corporatehealthgroup.com or amccarthy@corporatehealthgroup.com. (Copyrighted © 2007 Massachusetts Medical Society)

---

Vendor Profile: HEALTHeCAREERS

HEALTHeCAREERS Network is possible through the exclusive relationships with professional healthcare associations, MedHunters.com as well as additional channel and distribution partners. While other online job banks may be capable of obtaining merely a high volume of general candidates and résumés, HEALTHeCAREERS has the strong advantage of a reach to 75% of all physicians.

By partnering with over 70 prestigious healthcare associations, HEALTHeCAREERS is able to effectively market to more than 4 million active and passive professionals in high demand fields. Other advantages include:

· Maximized and targeted exposure by cross-posting jobs through key channel partners including MedHunters, all relevant association job banks and the local market sites represented by Bizjournals.com™

· The 96% renewal rate of over 8,000 top employer clients in the past 12 months demonstrates the dedication to deliver the commitments made. Exceptional customer care upholds these lasting relationships with the clientele.

HEALTHeCAREERS Network offers the most qualified active and passive candidates. Professional associations are the foundation of the Network. Partners include the leading names in medicine such as the American College of Cardiology, American College of Emergency Physicians, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and American Psychiatric Association. Please contact me for a complete list of over 70 professional healthcare associations.

HEALTHeCAREERS Network maximizes the opportunities for employers to successfully promote their recruitment needs with tools such as:

· Employment branding opportunities on the Web sites as well as through eNewsletters.
· Conference Connection makes it easy for employers and candidates to connect with each other prior to or while attending an Association's conference.
· Applicant Screening, Journal Connection, Conference Connection, Profile Pages and much more.

Paul Santos has worked for HEALTHeCAREERS Network for over two years. Before moving to Denver and HEALTHeCAREERS Network, Paul worked in physician recruiting directly for more than 4 years. Paul enjoys meeting with clients to determine the best solution in an industry of great need.

HEALTHeCAREERS Network
Web:  www.healthecareers.com www.medhunters.com
Email: paul.santos@healthecareers.com
Phone:  888-884-8242 ext. 0253 • Cell: 720-227-4290