Looking at the side effects, county focuses on recruitment and retention of doctors
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on August 21, 2017 5:50 AM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Dr. Brittany Taylor watches instructional videos about CareTracker in her office at Wayne UNC Health Care on Wednesday as she prepares to starts seeing her first patients in about a week. Taylor is one of several new hires at the hospital.
Wayne UNC Health Care is taking steps to address the community's physician shortage by targeting ways to recruit and retain more doctors, say hospital officials.
The effort is such a priority that two new positions have been created to address it -- resulting in the hiring of Melissa Shay, vice president of strategy and business development, and Kyle Harper, physician recruitment and relations specialist.
The trend being seen here is reflective of the rest of the nation, they said, as the health care landscape keeps changing. Fewer doctors are going into independent practices, with trade-offs in the form of physicians assistants and hospitalists taking over care of patients.
Even with that, as doctors retire or gravitate to bigger cities, it becomes more challenging to attract candidates to rural areas.
The UNC system, which operates the former Wayne Memorial Hospital, is aggressively tackling the problem, with a focus on the areas of family practice and specialties.
"We know that there's an access issue when it comes to primary care. We know that there's a disparity between wait times when it comes to getting into practices," Mrs. Shay said. "We actually have a new primary care physician that is coming on board with us. She should be accepting new patients within the next month to two months at the most.
"Primary care, I would say, is our top priority when it comes to recruitment right now because that's the entry point. We need all of our residents in this community connected with a primary care physician."
One strategy is to take a look at ways to make this happen, she said -- be it expanding hours or adding providers geographically.
Currently there is a concentration of providers operating near the hospital, she said, but not everyone lives near the hospital. Health care needs to be convenient and accessible, since transportation can be an issue for some, she said.
Family practice is the area the hospital is focused heavily on its recruitment effort, in addition to specialty areas.
Not only is the goal to bring new services to the area, but also in terms of succession planning, as a set-up to provide excellent care years into the future, Mrs. Shay said.
Consistency is also key, she added.
"From the hospitalist perspective, we did just start a partnership with Rex UNC so they're helping to support our hospitalist program and one thing that I think is neat about this organization that is different from organizations I've been in in the past is that we are making an effort to make that provider consistent," she said. "I'm not going to say it happens 100 percent of the time but if you are a patient in our hospital for several days there is an effort in the hospitalist group to make sure that you are seeing that provider as consistently as possible.
"We know that there is a cause for concern and anxiety when you've got new people coming into the room and communicating and those types of things."
Much is being done behind the scenes to make sure the future needs of the community will be met, Mrs. Shay said.
"We have done a lot of assessment and analysis over the last few months in looking at these areas across the board," she said. "We're looking at the population, we're looking at the demographics, we're looking at the health needs, we're looking at our own physician groups, who's here independently and then how do we make sure that in the future we've got a well-rounded medical group that can support this community and also be a place that drives the growth of the community? Because if you have a strong health system you have a strong community."
Harper said a key part of this is relationships -- making sure the best doctors are brought on board who are the right "fit" so they will likely stay and become part of the community.
His approach has been to customize the experience for each candidate, focusing on their interests and making sure they engage and have a meaningful interaction in their initial introduction to Wayne County.
"The thing that I have been struck with and that we do very well here is that our staff is very collegial. When it's all said and done, that's the feedback that they give me," he said. "When they have an interest in radiology and that radiologist is willing to meet with them on a Sunday afternoon, I feel like this is a very committed medical community."
"They're interviewing us as much as we're interviewing them," Mrs. Shay added.
It ultimately boils down to making sure there are enough doctors for the area residents, and making sure care is available closer to home.
"Travel is hard when you're in the hospital or seeking outpatient treatment, like oncology," Mrs. Shay said. "You want your family and friends around you.
"So as much as we can make sure that we're providing those services locally, we want to do that."
Independent practices across the county also do their own recruiting, such as Southeastern Medical Oncology Center
Dr. I-Wen Chang, oncologist there for 10 years, recently announced she is departing in November. Officials there confirmed she intends to join a similar practice in the Atlanta area.
The practice is actively recruiting for the opening and in the interim reassured patients that their care will continue with other doctors at SMOC.
In an email response Thursday to the News-Argus, Dr. Samer Kasbari of SMOC indicated that the practice will take extra time rather than filling the position hastily.
"We are actively looking for a board certified hematologist/oncologist with strong interest in clinical trials to continue the same theme of providing cutting edge therapy to our patients," he wrote. "We have no doubt that we will find that physician."