Rethinking recruiting worked for one remote hospital
Ashland (Kan.) Health Center had seen 11 providers come and go in 18 years. For a solid decade, there was no doctor serving the 24-bed critical access hospital, nursing home and rural health clinic. But Benjamin Anderson, the hospital’s eighth CEO in less than two decades, had a plan with purpose. “Mission-centered physicians are at the top of their class,” he says. “You don’t go to Africa if you’re not motivated. They’re actively seeking a job with a point and don’t want to show up and work for the man and go home. In rural America, we can give them quality of life and a job with purpose.” He showed Dan Shuman, DO, and his family just that. “When you recruit mission-focused people, you show them opportunities to serve. It’s not the traditional come-to-paradise approach,” Anderson says. The Shumans have been humbled by the welcome they received this summer from Ashland’s 855 residents. “We really see this as a privilege,” Shuman says. “We’re just so thankful to have the opportunity to erase disparities and to serve here.” For the full article, visit www.RuralRoadsonline.com. To meet Anderson and Shuman and learn more about successful rural recruiting efforts, join us in Kansas City Sept. 28-30 for the 10th annual Critical Access Hospital Conference.