One of the best ways to check out the physician’s history before actually scheduling a recruiting call is to ask your current medical staff and ask your clinical staff.
The critical elements that need to be understood include the following:
Professional Competence: The key to a successful recruitment effort and long term win-win relationship is working with physicians who are respected in the general community and among the medical community.
Types of Case: Obviously you don’t want to waste your time or the physician’s time if their types of cases are not profitable in an ASC.
Efficiency: Do some research and determine how efficient the physician is with time and material. There is nothing worse than thinking you have recruited a busy physician, only to find out that he or she is slow and uses too many expensive supplies.
Conduct: Again, this requires some research, but despite how eager you may be for cases, sometimes it isn’t worth it. Check out how the physician gets along with staff, other physicians, and most importantly, patients. You don’t want to have your facility get a bad reputation because a physician behaves poorly.
Cooperation: Not always an option, but it is nice to have physicians who are willing to cooperate and who will work with you regarding their start times, schedules, etc.
Malpractice History: Do some research on this to avoid going all the way through the credentialing process only to find out that the physician has a string of malpractice claims against him/her.
Disciplinary Action: This can usually be determined by asking your current medical staff, if they are on staff with the physician at the local hospital. This type of information is generally common knowledge.
Equipment Needs: It goes without saying that you will want to balance the cost of purchasing capital equipment against the reimbursement and case cost to assure profitability on the cases.
Reimbursement: Check out the reimbursement and do some case costing analysis to assure the cases are profitable. Start with Medicare and if they reimburse a decent rate, the insurance companies will usually follow suit.
So you’ve done your research and want to get the initial appointment? I have always had more success by actually visiting the physician’s office and attempting to schedule an appointment. It is more difficult for the physician’s front desk to turn away a person than to dismiss a phone call request for an appointment.
Once you have the appointment, be prepared before the meeting. Take information about your facility such as hours of operation, insurances accepted, equipment and current medical staff. If you have a brochure summarizing this, take this to give the physician.
During your initial visit allow the physician to talk, and you take notes. Invite him or her to come for a tour. This is also a good time to discuss equipment, staff and supply needs.
So you have been successful at getting him/her to schedule a tour? Make sure your staff is aware on the day of the tour. Schedule some time for the visiting physician to meet with your key clinical staff who will be working with the physician in the operating room.
This is also a great time to have them meet with your anesthesia provider to discuss specifics on types of cases, need for blocks, etc.
It goes without saying that you want to make sure the facility is pristine and everyone is friendly and cordial.
Ask for the cases. While meeting with the physician at your center, try and get a commitment on their booking cases. Ask for the name of the scheduler in the physician’s office and book a meeting with the scheduler as soon as possible to give them the information they will need to make it happen.
So you now have the physician’s commitment to start bringing cases. Get with your team and make sure you have everything in place to meet the physician’s needs on the first day of cases. If things don’t go well, you probably won’t get a second chance. At one facility I worked with, they did a dry run with the physician and he actually gave them a picture of the instruments he wanted on the day of surgery.
I realize not many physicians are willing to go this far, but, it sure can make for a smooth transition.
Once you have recruited a new physician, give those opportunities for feedback. Ask them how their cases are going each time they are in your facility, and let them know that you will fix any problems. Of course, follow up, and communicate to them what you have done to solve any problems.
Meet with their schedulers at least monthly to work out any issues they are having. They really can be your ally if you can get them to feel part of the process. Have a schedulers’ lunch or breakfast to have them actually see your facility and meet your staff.
The key to successful recruiting is doing your homework and making sure the physician you are recruiting will enhance your current facility with his/her professional competence, types of cases, efficiency, conduct, cooperation, no record of malpractice or disciplinary action, and cost effectiveness.
Suzanne Wienbarg, RN, is vice president of operations with Ambulatory Surgical Centers of America (ASCOA). She can be reached at swienbarg@ascoa.com.