Recruiting physicians resembles civic lesson

To understand why Christian County has fewer primary care doctors than other areas of Kentucky, consider this from Teresa Bowers, who oversees physician recruitment for Jennie Stuart Medical Center: “Little old Hopkinsville is up against Boston and Chicago and all of these bigger cities,” Bowers said recently in a New Era story. “They’re not throwing darts at a map and saying, ‘I’m going to Hopkinsville.’”

The Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure estimates there is one primary care doctor for every 2,000 people in Christian County. Bowers thinks the ratio is actually about one primary care doctor to every 4,000. The state average for a county is one doctor per 1,000 residents.

That puts things in focus, and we have to appreciate Bowers’ assessment of what we face in the competition to attract physicians.

It also reminds us that Christian County has faced other challenges in competing for talent and resources.

In the early 1980s, around the time Hopkinsville retailer Herb Hays was elected mayor, local leaders rallied around the idea that this community could compete with other cities across the nation for industrial plants. The Hopkinsville-Christian County Economic Development Council was incorporated in 1986. Within a few years, the EDC and its recruitment became a source of community pride for many people. As one industrial park, and then a second, attracted new tenants and thousands of manufacturing jobs, Hopkinsville gained a reputation with state officials as one of Kentucky’s top recruiters. And despite some detractors, the EDC remains a significant institution in Christian County.

What can we learn from the industrial recruitment model that might apply to the recruitment of physicians?

We can recognize that we have to compete like we mean to win. It helps that Jennie Stuart Medical Center has someone like Bowers, a veteran in local health care administration, devoted to the recruitment. Bowers knows this community and its health care systems.

But it’s becoming increasingly clear that health care is everyone’s business. We cannot separate the health of the community from our economy and quality of life.

In the way that Herb Hays and others made industrial recruitment and economic development a source of community pride, we need a broad civic approach to our health care systems. That includes the recruitment of health care professionals.