LAKELAND - Alberta Health Services (AHS) wanted to see how they can strengthen their partnerships with northern Alberta communities in order to tackle the ongoing challenge of physician recruitment and retention in the upper most part of the province.
AHS hosted two North Zone Partnering on Recruitment and Retention meetings, one on Thursday, June 24, and a second on Monday, June 28 in order to explain what they've been doing to bring doctors to the area and keep them here.
Chief Zone Officer of Operations for the AHS North Zone, Greg Cummins, said during Thursday's meeting that while they have always experienced challenges with doctor retention and recruitment in the North Zone, it has only been exemplified due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Partly, and mainly I think, because of the transient work force we normally rely on in the North Zone has not been able to travel during the pandemic because of the isolation requirements and so on when they return home,” he detailed.
Cummins continued, “we’re going to, I think very much of recovery going forward, and one of the gifts of the pandemic is that we’re going to see are there are increasing number of service disruptions in our community. That’s not because AHS doesn’t want to do everything that we can to avoid those situations, it’s simply because we don’t have the bodies coming into our communities to help us through these tough times."
This was part of the reason why they decided to host community meetings, inviting members of the public, local officials, and other groups to take part virtually.
“We really do need to have strong partnerships with our community members. These are challenging times, and together we can make this better,” stated Dr. Bryan Muir.
Outlining physician recruitment in the North Zone
Deborah Whetstone, AHS North Zone Medical Affairs, outlined how they go about recruiting doctors to rural parts of the province.
AHS utilizes Physician Resource Planners (PRPs) to work with medical directors to understand the needs of physicians throughout the North Zone.
"They also recruit physicians, so our dedicated PRPs work diligently to fill the vacancies with the best candidate, which is also the best fit for the community," Whetstone detailed, adding they also focus on physician retention by working closely with physicians, community members, and recruitment and retention committees, among others, to ensure newly recruited physicians "become immersed in what the community has to offer."
AHS also has a workforce plan which is used to help develop a forecast of needs.
"That workforce plan is then shared with our provincial team, added to a data base in which they do provide us projections for a 10-year plan," she added. "That allows us to have a better understanding of expectations and future needs within the province."
According to Whetstone, although these are three-year plans they review and update them on an annual basis and include information such as the community's current population stats and catchment area, the number of physicians, additional services, services provided by visiting specialists, claims data for core specialties, TeleHealth services, and third next available appointment.
Once a need is identified, AHS posts the position in three places: AHS Doctor Jobs, Physician Link Alberta, and the Canadian Association of Staff Physician Recruiters.
Applicants that make it past the interview process are invited to the community for a tour.
“Physicians want to know what a community has to offer,” expressed Whetstone.
Should the physician accept the position, they start their two-part assessment process with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta. The first three-month review takes place in a community other than the physician's soon-to-be home, while the second portion, which also lasts three-months, is in the area they're moving to.
How many vacancies are there?
Whetstone noted AHS is aware of the high number of vacancies rural communities are facing, with 41 of the 54 openings within the North Zone in these types of areas, as of June 22.
"We do recognize there's a high number of vacancies in rural communities, of course... filling those vacancies are a priority to us," expressed Whetstone.
So far for this fiscal year, AHS has recruited 21 physicians, while in the 2020-2021 fiscal year they brought in 39. The year before they hired 31, while in 2018-2019, 38 physicians joined the North Zone.
"If projections stay the way they are, hopefully we will be successful and have a higher number of recruits at the end of the fiscal year," Whetstone noted.
Whetstone stressed that AHS is working tirelessly to ensure emergency rooms remain open while they try to fill vacant positions.
"I have a team of about four people that want to ensure where there's a number of vacancies and one or two physicians left in a community, that we're able to keep an emergency room open for patients and leave it open for emergencies," exclaimed Whetstone. "We work long hours, sometimes well into the night, to ensure that we find coverage."
According to Whetstone, her teams work their way down a list of physicians to try to find someone to fill in the gap "to see if they can work in the rural communities to help us out."
In most cases, AHS relies on their locum pool. However, "due to the pandemic last year, we see the number of locum availability has become less, and sometimes we have noticed the pandemic has affected the ability of locums to move between provinces, and as well internationally."
What are they doing to get more doctors?
Jeff Gillies is part of the AHS talent acquisition team. He explained how the province uses headhunting, a nation-wide marketing campaign, candidate management, local community spotlights outreach to post-secondary partners, and community committees, among other methods to recruit physicians.
Rebekah Siedel, director of community and engagement team with Rural Health Professions Action Plan (RhPAP), noted one of the biggest contributing factors to recruiting and retaining doctors is the community itself.
"If health care providers and their families aren't well integrated into the community, their long-term duration there may be lessened," she said. "We know actively engaged communities can make a difference in attracting health care providers to the communities and keeping them there."
Over the years, the RhPAP has seen how community-driven recruitment and retention committees can help in the success of hiring and keeping doctors to an area.
The break-out sessions
In order to get a better idea of what is working in certain regions, AHS broke the over 80 attendants into groups of five or so. In these sessions, participants were encouraged to discuss what they're doing in their area to attract and retain physicians.
While some said they rely heavily on selling their town and surrounding area by showcasing all it has to offer, others said they try to encourage students interested in the health care field to come back.
There on behalf of Cold Lake Hearts for Healthcare, Kari Leiper said it's really about working together, stating "I think as one we make more progress."
Lac La Biche County Coun. Jason Stedman said in their region, the municipality assists the health care field by providing capital funding for items such as CT scanners in addition to pitching their community to those who show interest.
“In Lac La Biche one of the things we have done when approaching professionals and individuals is showcasing what our community’s, our council’s, strategic goals are, some of the plans we’re looking to strive and achieve,” he explained.
Later in the meeting, Lac La Biche County Mayor Omar Moghrabi agreed with his fellow council member.
It was a comment made by many of the groups who took part - not only is it important to sell rural Alberta to the physician, but also to their family.
“To draw people to your community there has to be a quality of life," expressed Moghrabi.
