Thirty-two million more Americans have health insurance—so now what?

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the United States could face a shortage of as many as 150,000 doctors in the next 15 years.  As primary care physicians assume even more responsibility for coordinating care for an ever-expanding patient base, all of us will feel the effects of the physician shortage.

Only about ten percent of physicians practice in rural areas despite the fact that nearly 25 percent of the population lives in rural areas. More physicians choose to practice in larger communities where the patients are more affluent and have better insurance.  Finding the right physician for the right community requires relationship-building and lifestyle matching.  OR, as a medical student once told me, “Ma’am, it ain’t about the Mercedes.  It’s about the Kubota.”

Tim Skinner, executive director of the National Rural Recruitment and Retention Network, explained that when rural communities look for physicians, they need to be concerned about recruitment — but they also need to be concerned about retention.  If providers are leaving just a year or so after being recruited, then that turnover costs the clinic or the hospital a lot of money.  More importantly, it is a blow to the patients in the community.

“The community and health care facility need to develop a strategic plan that is a partnership – the community grows the health care facility and the health care facility grows the community.  It really is that ‘village thing’ and the most effective road to success.  Matching candidates with community and medical needs with support of the community is what it is all about,” Skinner said.

Community leaders may employ many effective public relations tactics to ensure success in physician recruitment.  Approach the physician interview as a special event.  Is it organized?  Are the right players on board?  Does each player know his or her role?  Have you determined key speaking points?  Have you done your research?  Do you know your audience (a.k.a. the physician, the spouse…the mother-in-law!)?  What are the expected outcomes?  Can you mitigate risk for the unplanned element or challenge? Have you presented your opportunity ethically?

Finding a unique selling point and demonstrating community pride may take a grassroots effort as communities become more competitive for the right physician.  With proper planning, execution and evaluation, communities will succeed.

No matter the moniker placed on it or the department in which it is housed, Corporate Social Responsibility—executed well—works.  Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the deliberate inclusion of public interest in corporate decision making.  Consider CSR the conscience or soul of the organization.

Successful CSR programs result when CSR principles permeate corporate governance.  What are the corporate mission, the values, and the goals?  Does the organization ascribe to an ethics statement?  Do employees hold their fellow employees to the same standards and accountability?  Does management nurture that environment?

Ben & Jerry’s, the ice cream manufacturers, carry the banner for companies who live, breathe, and, well, eat CSR.  Since the company’s inception in 1978, the founders incorporated social and environmental mission-driven values into every aspect of the organization.   From ensuring that Ben & Jerry’s employees earn a livable wage, which outpaces the national minimum wage, to seeking global vendors with like-minded values, Ben & Jerry’s attracts customers who also share these values. 

CSR never works when it is forced or contrived.  At the other extreme, what has society reaped from Enron to Bernard Madoff?  Thanks to such corporate disasters, organizations now face greater federal regulation, added expenses of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, employees decimated without retirement plans, and nonprofits that have eliminated services.

What is your little CSR voice saying to you?