Always be recruiting: ASCOA's Jeff Péo on strategies for ASC physician recruiting

To succeed in the market, ASCs need to recruit the best physicians. Administrators should adopt certain strategies to bring physicians to their center.

"This is hard work, this is something I've been doing for 12 years," said Jeff Péo, chief development officer of Ambulatory Surgical Centers of America. "It takes time and it takes effort."

During Becker’s 22nd Annual Meeting: The Business and Operations of ASCs, Mr. Péo discussed various strategies ASC administrators can adopt to recruit physicians to their center in a presentation titled, "We Need More Volume — Recruiting Physicians and Cases." As volume continues to drop for ASCs, centers are beginning to recruit physicians to backfill the lost cases.

However, it is not only about quantity, but quality. Rather than simply filling up a center's roster with countless cases, the center needs to seek the right kind of cases. A center can add cases for existing specialties that a center does well or add new service lines, even if adding a physician to the practice may compete with another physician at the center. At the end of the day, an administrator is running a business; if its in the center's best interest to seek a certain physician, talk to the current physicians before pursing the new physician.

An extensive understanding of the market is key to recruit the very best physicians. Know who is available versus who is employed and compare your center to your competitors. Evaluate what certain centers are doing well and highlight the significant opportunities your center offers its patients compared to its competitors.

"There are a limited number of surgeons for you to capture within your marketplace," Mr. Péo said.

It's not an easy feat for surgeons to move cases from the hospital into an ASC, so anything your center can do to smooth the transition will increase the chances that surgeon will bring cases in the future.

Continuously update the market analysis and create files on the talented surgeons operating within the market. In the files, administrators should know information concerning surgeon's employment contracts, surgeons who are new to the market, credentialed physicians and surgeons who have ownership in other surgery centers. Additionally, successful administrators are aware when talented surgeons' contracts are ending, so they can recruit that physician.

"You need to talk about the problem(s) a physician is having at his/her current practice and solve the problem for them," Mr. Péo said. "There has to be a reason for them to change centers."

If a physician is frustrated with OR wait time, talk to him/him about the short turnaround times at your center. The goal is to know almost everything you can about a physician. With surgeons' busy schedules, an administrator has to make the point fairly quickly.

Additionally, recruiting physicians is a team effort. Physicians at your center are a valuable recruiting tool as they can identify disgruntled colleagues who aren't currently using the center and recruit other physicians in ways an administrator cannot.

"Physicians will open doors for you that you cannot open for yourself," explained Mr. Péo. "There is a collegiate respect when a doctor talks to another doctor. Administrators should seek the help of other staff members at the center to see if they can bring in any potential cases."

To attract talented surgeons to a center, an ASC can host a community outreach event where surgeons can come and tour the center. The administrator should have a list of target physicians they want to recruit. The key is to have physicians tour the center and highlight the attractive features that distinguish a center from its competitors.

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