Duane Hicks
In response to a call from town council to review how to improve physician recruitment and retention here, the Rainy River Future Development Corp. has come back with a report recommending many ideas.
And the message is loud and clear that co-operation and community involvement are key if the town wants to attract more doctors here.
“It is our opinion that the community needs to become fully engaged in doctor recruitment and retention,” said economic development officer Geoff Gillon, who delivered the report to council Monday night.
“This engagement will involve the commitment of staff and council time, additional funds, and a conscious effort to understand the intricacies of the recruitment process,” he noted.
“The result of such an effort is to make the entire community aware of the necessity of doctor recruitment,” Gillon added.
“I think it’s essential to all of us that we have a full complement of doctors,” he stressed. “I think it’s essential to all of us that those doctors are happy to be working and living in the Town of Fort Frances and the Rainy River District.
“Each and every member of the community has a role, however small, in highlighting the benefits of living and working in Fort Frances to any and all prospective physicians and medical staff.”
Gillon said he truly believes we must work, as a community, to put our best foot forward.
“It is highly-competitive out there,” he warned. “We can only do so much as a small community.
“But if we work together as a community, and we show prospective physicians that we want them, and we’re prepared to support them, we have a very good chance of attracting the younger doctors to our community.”
One of the report’s major recommendations is for the existing doctor recruitment and retention committee to create an executive committee, which would consist of a representative from each of the Family Health Team, Family Health Organization (Nelson Medical Professional Corp.), Town of Fort Frances, and La Verendrye Hospital.
The role of the executive committee would be to set recruitment budgets, allocate resources and staffing, and report to partners and the community on an annual basis.
The report also recommended the doctor recruitment and retention committee:
•elect or rotate a chair position every two years;
•invest up to $400,000 of the current recruitment fund dollars (which was about $520,000 as of the end of 2009) into a secured interest bearing certificate—at a two percent return, this would earn an estimated additional $8,000 in income towards doctor recruitment;
•encourage financial and organizational participation of up to $30,000 collected annually from Alberton, La Vallee, Couchiching FN, and unorganized areas east of Fort Frances;
•establish subcommittees to work on areas such as marketing product development, physician incentives, “Retention Week,” student and new physician welcoming, and family employment support;
•invite representatives from Dr. Moorhouse’s office to participate;
•improve its planning and budgeting;
•increase awareness of incentive programs offered here;
•encourage greater participation from the broader community; and
•strengthen activities to support Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) students and residents.
The report also recommends that recruitment and retention activities be increased in number and better shared between partners.
Some of the many recommendations include:
•creating marketing tools to advertise incentives offered (i.e., a website with testimonials from physicians);
•increasing communication and sharing of partner resources;
•increasing and broadening lifestyle incentives offered;
•diversify attendance at recruitment activities and send physicians whenever possible;
•advertising in trade journals;
•organizing a tour for all NOSM students;
•organizing special events such as “Celebrate Physicians Week”; and
•creating a handbook to provide to new students and residents depicting all the services, amenities, facilities, etc. in town.
Gillon said the burden of physician recruitment historically has been placed on the Nelson Medical Professional Corp. but as the community moves to a system that attempts to remove physicians from having to fill non-medical roles, the task should be shifted to the community.
This would reduce work for Nelson Medical staff and, therfore, costs.
The community will be dependent on staff at Nelson Medical for advice and guidance until sufficient expertise is developed, and recruitment and retention is impossible without support and assistance from the physicians, Gillon noted.
That said, Gillon said the Fort Frances Family Health Team should begin to take on some administrative and marketing tasks associated with doctor recruitment, and their staff will need training and support.
The report also suggested the RRFDC or Riverside Health Care Facilities, Inc. hire an assistant to do tasks required to “jump start” recruitment efforts.
This part-time position would:
•establish a list of citizen volunteers to assist in administrative and other recruitment tasks;
•prepare for third-year NOSM students who come here, and help them while they’re here (maybe with a small, community-based incentive package);
•make contact with first- and second-year NOSM students and provide information on grants, opportunities, etc.;
•create marketing tools, promote incentives, establish a website, and update job postings with Healthforce (a medical professional job network);
•work with Nelson Medical and the hospital to get testimonials from physicians;
•work with third-year NOSM students and physicians to publicize the rewards of being a physician as a career to promote in community, especially high school; and
•work with local students interested in medical school, providing them with information, requirements, and linkages for further assistance.
The report was done with input from recruitment officers, ministry officials, medical students, economic development organizations, and health team leaders, as well as information from various websites, reports, and research on physician recruitment, news reports, and press releases.
Council endorsed the report, and now will forward it on to the doctor recruitment and retention committee and various stakeholders to get their input and discuss the recommendations therein.
“I thought it was a very good report,” Mayor Roy Avis said after Monday’s meeting. “Now, it has to be forwarded to the doctor recruitment and retention committee.
“It will be reviewed there and also be sent to all the funding partners.
“There was good information that came forward,” the mayor added. “I hope everybody has an open mind when they look through it, and try to move in a direction that is best for this community.
“As Geoff had said today [Monday], it’s a very, very competitive world out there right now and everybody has to be involved,” the mayor agreed.
“Everybody at all levels of the community have to be involved to get this functioning in the proper manner,” he stressed.
Council passed a resolution Jan. 11 authorizing the RRFDC to develop terms of reference and a revision to the current model of the doctor recruitment committee.
The month before, council had passed a resolution to pursue changes and enhancements to local doctor recruitments efforts in Fort Frances.
