Location, location, location! Or should I say relocation, relocation, relocation!! Sure, the healthcare job sector has not been as affected as many industries. But make no bones about it, hospitals are feeling the affects of the lagging economy. The fact is, hospitals have to relocate many of their new employees and in the current economic state, that is not always an option for many top candidates.

Much of the good news relating to job growth comes out of healthcare, but it’s just the nature of the industry. As a hospital recruiter, you may be experiencing some challenges getting candidates to move. Sure you have more applicants than ever before, but can you get them started?

Dale Hannegan
www.radsciences.com
www.mymedport.com

I spoke to several Administrators this week and by far the biggest concern they have is reimbursement. A recent AHA report also confirmed payment shortfalls from both private payers and government relative to operating costs. Individuals are also reportedly paying more premiums than ever before, and employers are looking for ways to offset the extra inflation. My own personal insurance premiums increased 26% this year. 26%!!! That's just not right. So, I was also forced to find yet another "new" health plan. Can't wait till next year so I can do it again.

One recent reimbursement trend, pay for performance, is thought by many to be an effort to reward providers for performance. I believe we've been down this road before, but never has this issue been more serious than it is currently. At least politically anyway. While many are skeptical that it will end up overlooked, a few of my colleagues are optimistic that the current situation in Washington will push more providers and payers to come together in order to battle "big brother".

I'm just glad there are people much smarter than me trying to work all this out.

Hey doc, can you prescribe me a Prozac?

Dale Hannegan
www.radsciences.com
www.mymedport.com

It never ceases to amaze me that a hospital will not pay someone $2.00 per hour more in order to fill a vacancy that is costing them $80 per hour in contract labor. If the hospital CFO was making this decision, would this be the one he/she would make? Unfortunately, many times the person making the decision on what to pay has no skin in the game. Meaning, if HR does not agree to pay a Physical Therapist $35/hr instead of $33/hr, who's production does it affect? My guess is that the Physical Therapy Department will suffer from the decision. Therefore, shouldn't the Director of Physical Therapy or Rehab make the final call?

This frustration stems from countless examples of HR Departments not paying (or being unable to pay) the market rate for a candidate. Some positions remain vacant for months because many hospitals are not keeping pace with competing markets that drive up healthcare wages. By the way, when you look at adjusting wages, look at pay rates in ALL MARKETS, not just your state.

As a recruiter, we are faced with this situation daily. Human Resources tells us that they can only pay a certified healthcare professional $30/hr, even though the person has the experience to expect $35/hr. Yes, internal equity matters. But so does filling a position that's been vacant for 6 months and where you have a temp that's charging you twice the rate. Furthermore, what is it costing you NOT to fill the position? Please give me a straight answer. We all know $2.00 per hour annualized is $4,160 per year. But what is it costing you NOT to pay it? Funny, it seems no one wants to answer that question.

Now that I've gone on my rant, let me be clear. This should not be done when you have 15 qualified candidates applying for a job. However, some types of candidates are just hard to find. If you lose a Specialty RN, Physical Therapist or a triple modality Sonographer over 2 bucks an hour, your organization is on the wrong track. You may ruffle a feather or two by doing it, but that's only if someone finds out. If you're like me, you don't run around telling everyone in your department what you make in the first place.

It's simple economics... a calculator, pen and paper. If it makes sense, do it! And apologize later if necessary.

Dale Hannegan
www.radsciences.com
www.mymedport.com

Okay, I guess common sense is really just not that common. As tight as the healthcare job market is, you would think that job seekers would do everything possible to prepare for an interview. Or, maybe they'll just go out and party the night before and get thrown in jail. Maybe they'll just show up in tank top.

If you need a little humor in your hectic day, well take a look at our "10 Things You Should Never Do On An Interview". Oh yeah, it really happened.

Dale Hannegan
www.radsciences.com
www.mymedport.com

With the wave of popularity in social media websites like myspace, twitter and facebook over the past 3-4 years, we at RadSciences Group wondered how this newly emerging technology could be wielded to serve the Healthcare industry. Like most organizations right now, hospitals are also faced with reduced recruitment and communication budgets and are turning to social media to keep their workforces engaged.

According to a the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) "Engagement Survey,” of the 1,500 participants, about 79% of the respondents reported they use social media frequently to engage employees and foster productivity, outranking even e-mail (75%). Company blogs are the most popular social media tools (47%), with discussion boards ranking the highest for future planned use.

We are please that www.mymedport.com is helping the healthcare sector with workforce engagement and offering free job postings for non-profit hospitals. The beta test is almost complete and we are looking forward to launching the first healthcare social network.

MyMedPort Team

There has been lots of talk lately by the President about health care reform. This was a widely debated topic during the most recent election. It seems as if the only thing everyone agreed on was we do need a better system that will provide coverage for the roughly 46 million Americans who do not have insurance, in spite of the $2.4 trillion spent on health care in 2007.

Elizabeth Cohen, CNN Senior Medical Correspondent writes a good article entitled, What you need to know about health care reform
How to do this and at what cost continues to be debated. Of course the Democrats and the Republicans disagree, but what else is new. Other than the Americans who do not have health care the group of people that will potentially be most impacted are physicians. It is still early but I think it is clear there will be general disagreement by this group. For example, AMA President Dr. Nancy Nielsen is quoted in the article and does not feel the President’s proposal is the answer, yet the American Academy of Family Physicians endorses the President’s plan.

I personally think physicians are going to be put in a very difficult position. If they don’t endorse the plan because they don’t believe it is economically viable then they will be portrayed as selfish and greedy. What the general public doesn’t likely understand is that the average physician practice has at least 35% (I am being very conservative with my estimate) of their practice is already government subsidized by Medicare and Medicaid, which reimburses much less than private insurance plans.

Bob Collins
The Medicus Firm
http://themedicusfirm.com/