Ms. Townsend opened the session with the topic of physician recruitment. According to Mr. Frazier, a good way to get the process going is to look at which specialties would be most profitable for your center. Also, look for physicians who manage busy surgical practices effectively and are efficient in the operating room. “And then also look at the character of the physician,” he said. “They must be someone you want to partner with based on their attitude.” Mr. Peo added that when looking to recruit new physician owners, try and recruit physicians who aren’t invested anywhere else. “You don’t want that split loyalty,” he said. But if they are invested elsewhere, make sure you know and are comfortable with the number of cases you can count on the physician to bring in.
Finding the physicians you want to recruit and then getting in touch with them also poses challenges. First and foremost, start with existing partners, said Mr. Frazier. If they know a physician who is a potential target for recruitment, ask them to call and leave a message. Mr. Martin also suggested talking to nurses about physicians they work with. “They know how a physician behaves behind closed doors,” he said. Nurses can point you in the right direction, he added.
According to Mr. O’Sullivan, when it comes to getting new physician owners to join the center, try and give them a low price buy-in. “You need to come up with a number that is attractive to them,” he said. Mr. Peo said, however, that while financials are a huge part of it, it is also important to make sure that the new physicians are comfortable with the existing physician partners at the ASC. Selling existing partners on the idea of adding a new partner is another aspect of physician recruitment. In that case, explain the math. “You have to show them the pie chart,” Mr. Peo said. “They may be getting a smaller piece of the pie, but it is a bigger pie.”
The session closed with a discussion about building patient volume at an ASC. One strategy is making sure that the center is capturing as many cases as possible from its physicians, said Mr. Peo. According to Mr. Martin, an effective way to encourage healthy competition is putting up a chart that indicates which physicians are performing at a high level and which physicians are performing at a low level. “Physicians are competitive and the guy at the bottom of the list won’t like being there,” said Mr. Martin.
