Hospitals, medical groups and healthcare institutions are reluctant, at times, to deal with what is essentially THE MOST IMPORTANT PART of their organization…the best medical staff available to meet their needs. Organizations will pay top dollar for consulting firms, for accounting expertise, for billing systems, for operations consultants and for auditors that promise improved business results. However, when it comes to top-notch employees, there is a tendency to cut corners.

The irony rests in the fact that if an organization had hired the best talent available, then the cost of all those so-called experts could have been avoided, and the bottom-line of the business greatly enhanced.

What Med Staff America Will Provide?

Knowledge - Our knowledge, experience, placement and retention expertise insures we know the market better than most. We also know what it will take to attract the quality individual that you seek. We will provide an unbiased perspective on the recruitment marketplace and will share strategies with you to better improve your market position in the hiring process. Consultative Experience - We are able to share insights into the market place in terms of what it will take to attract the person of the caliber that you seek. Such issues as salary, production bonus, partnership terms, office sharing arrangements, contractual issues, employee and independent contractor are all items to which we can address and provide valuable input. We think it is imperative that we, together, position the opportunity so favorably that if a top notch candidate interviews at 3 or 4 comparable opportunities, their first choice will be yours.

We will also serve as a facilitator to bring both parties together, functioning as an independent third party consultant.

Often it is difficult for two parties who will be working together on a medical/professional level, to enter into detailed discussions about salary and contract issues. Negotiation breeds mistrust, and a lot of potential healthcare provider/hospital partnerships breakdown in the 11th hour because it becomes personal rather than professional, and each party starts to become offended. This is a role that we are well adept at playing, thereby sparing both parties from any uncomfortable situations.

Candidate/Spouse interview - We will interview the Candidate and their spouse, significant other or anyone else who is part of the decision making process, prior to them visiting your community. This is one of the most overlooked aspects to relocation (50% of the decision making process to relocate to a new opportunity will come from the spouse and ignoring their needs and wants is a huge mistake). Effectively, as a third party, we are able to discuss issues that may not surface in the course of a routine interview, issues that can impact a candidate's ability to accept a position.

The obstacles of relocation sometimes come in the small details…

• Current/existing contracts - What is their out clause, how soon can they physically be working in the new opportunity?
• Is the candidate a "shopper" versus "serious" about relocation?
• Other interviews or offers on the table.
• Using your offer as a negotiation tool for their current position or other offers they may have.
• Family restrictions - Does the spouse need a job for this family to relocate?
• Are they seriously going to pull their kids out of school?
• If they can't sell their home, what are they going to do?
• Are they able to carry two mortgages at the same time?
• What is their time frame for making a solid decision either "yes" or "no"?

Fundamental Issues:

• Do they have the ability to get a state license?
• Credentialing - Are they qualified and able to be privileged by the hospital.
• Board Certification Status

Other issues:

• Disciplinary Actions
• Malpractice issues
• Professional references

Timing - We will surface candidates for your review within a 2-4 week period and often times, quicker. If you have an immediate need, it may take too long to place a journal ad for 2-3 months, wait for the results, screen through respondents, etc., to meet your needs. Besides, only 10% of all positions are actually filled with candidates who respond to web-site and journal ads.

Retention - We are not only involved with search recruitment and placement but concerned with retention as well.

It is important that the candidate we work with to think "long term" and that all parties are happy with the process. We want your continued patronage, we want the referrals from placed candidates, and we want a good reference from you when needed.

We will maintain contact with both clients and candidates to insure that both are pleased with the situation. If problems arise, we will then become a confidant in intervening to work out any differences or uncomfortable situations that may have evolved.

Confidentiality - When you run an advertisement, you must either rely on a P.O. Box or use your name and phone number.

If you use a P.O. Box, you limit the number of responses. After all, what fine, upstanding Physician is going to send his CV to a blind ad?

And if you use your true name and phone number/address, you will get responses from any number of unqualified applicants, pharmacy representatives, insurance agents, equipment salesmen, etc. who scour the classifieds weekly.

We will provide you levels of confidentiality that will not only screen out unqualified candidates, but will also allow you to deal with:

• Confidential marketing strategies without tipping your hand to the competition
• The Ability to improve existing staff via upgrading
• Positioning your opportunity above others that may exist in the area
• Competitive edge
• Replacing an individual who suddenly resigns or is terminated

Goal Matching - We will speak with you in terms of your goals, objectives and the importance of filling the position at hand. We will discuss with you not only recruitment but more importantly, retention. We will then go about the task of finding appropriate candidates who have similarly matching goals and objectives. Only in this manner, can one be assured that career-minded individuals will be more apt to be retained, in what should be a WIN-WIN situation.

Added Value - "In-house human resources, no matter how effective, view the market place through an imperfect or misrepresentative prism, and tunnel vision is their occupational hazard", so writes the Fordyce Letter, of St. Louis, Missouri. The "we-do-not-use-outside-recruiters" is a penny-wise and pound foolish stance. Why, then, would an Organization limit its ability to attract the best talent available?

In-house recruiters are vulnerable to the pressures of their job. After all, they were probably hired so as to eliminate recruitment fees and bring the function under the roof of the Organization. However, it has been proven that in-house recruiters are inhibited by "internal politics and cultural dimensions which do not hinder the outsider" (Fordyce Letter).

The in-house recruiter faces the pressure of filling a position and often is tempted to do so, regardless of cost. After all, his/her job is structured around filling positions with success or failure being measured by the number of physicians that are recruited. The tendency to hire someone, regardless of cost, causes the development of poor or excessive contractual arrangements, budget deficits and unhappy physicians. This is the pressure that the in-house recruiter faces and must deal with and must do so without the resources, expertise, network and developmental abilities of a search firm.

Nationwide Search - There are some hospitals that limit its use of independent search firms because the hospital "has 'candidates' ringing their doorbell all the time to see what is available". In other words, they do not need to pay fees. At first glance this seems like a reasonable and understandable approach. But if you dig deeper and analyze the recruiting process, what they are really doing is short changing themselves.

They are limiting their selection process to only those that knock on their door. Doesn't this do a disservice to the medical community and to the patient population which deserves and expects the best healthcare providers available…and not merely the best door knockers? Don't the medical staff, board of directors and the patient population deserve to hear the announcement that "after a nationwide search, here is the best qualified and available candidate who wants to join us."?

Dedicated to Results - We will be able to develop interest in your opportunity with candidates who might not have been drawn to your opportunity otherwise. By discussing your opportunity and by sharing the potential, by customizing the conversation to address the objectives of the potential candidate, a position may be presented in a much better light and sound more attractive than any advertisement could possibly portray.

Typically, when faced with the task of reviewing a pile of CV's, the objective becomes 'elimination' rather than 'selection'. This is because the objective is set at getting through the pile.

Unfortunately, very qualified candidates may be eliminated through this or any resume review process. That is because, in answering an advertisement, candidates send generic CV's. If they happen to put the buzz-words that you seek on their CV's, they become candidates. If they do not put the buzz words on their CV's, they run the risk of being eliminated even if they are well qualified!

We will screen each candidate to determine their actual qualifications whether or not such is expressed on their CV. Further, you do not hire CV's - you hire people, and you certainly do not hire people on the basis of how well they can write a CV! If you did, you might never fill your vacancies.

The clients that we work with who are the most successful, profitable and provide the best medical services, are the ones who already know this little secret. Find the best available and most talented candidates! Build the best talented, best available medical staff and the patients will come. They will stop migrating to your competition. The most talented healthcare providers are not answering your ads or knocking on doors for average or low paying positions. The question is, do you want the possibility for success, or would you like to insure that you are successful? At Med Staff America, we are your partners in healthcare recruitment and retention. We will be your partners through the peaks and the valleys and more importantly, for the long term. For more information, call 1-800-MED-STAFF.