Recruitment Realities
The University of Michigan hospitalist program has been recruiting physicians through the university’s residency program, as well as advertisements in national journals.
“We’ve had a lot of success locally, but we’ve also seen response from around the country,” says Dr. Parekh. “We’ve had good success already; we’ve already recruited 75% of the physicians, in part due to the loan forgiveness program.”
The concept of lifting student loans from the shoulders of new physicians is a perfect fit for hospitalists in particular. “Hospital medicine is a young field, so by definition the physicians are young,” Dr. Parekh points out.
Dr. Flanders adds, “You’re not going to attract 40- or 50-year-old physicians who want to go into academics. But this [might] apply to someone shifting from one academic field to another.”
One problem that loan forgiveness can’t solve, however, is the number of residents choosing hospital medicine. “Internal medicine needs to get more people to pursue hospital medicine,” says Dr. Flanders. “And as it is, there’s only a small trickle of people pursuing internal medicine.”
The short supply of trained hospitalists severely affects the ability of hospital medicine groups to find and hire new physicians. Investing in value-added offerings such as loan forgiveness may prove worth the cost, if the investment brings quality candidates to your group. TH
Contributor Jane Jerrard regularly writes for “Career Development.”