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Recruiting the Best Nephrologists

Leigh Page

October 2006
Business Management

When a nephrology practice is growing, the partners must work harder and at the same time recruit new practitioners to take up the slack. But before adding staff, nephrologists should consider the options carefully, because new staff will shape the practice’s future direction, says Martin H. Osinski, president of Nephrology USA, a recruiting and consulting firm in Miami.

Practices have several options, says Osinski, who has 20 years of experience in nephrology recruiting. They can hire a young nephrologist out of fellowship training, a seasoned nephrologist, or a midlevel practitioner, such as a physician assistant or nurse practitioner. This third option is becoming increasingly popular.

A growing number of nephrology practices are turning to midlevel practitioners, rather than hiring a new physician. With supervision, midlevel practitioners can assume some of the work that physicians would do otherwise, such as primary care, following up on office visits, and working with dialysis patients. They also staff chronic kidney disease clinics and vascular access centers.

Finding a Match
It’s time to start planning for recruitment when each nephrologist in a practice is seeing more than 75 dialysis patients, Osinski says. And, that number should be lower if the doctors have significant travel time to dialysis centers and hospitals.

Hiring a young nephrologist from a renal fellowship program can be difficult since the demand for nephrologists has been growing and supply from training programs cannot keep up. The number of open positions for nephrologists far exceeds that of renal fellows entering practice.
The United States Renal Data Systems, in Minneapolis, reports that the prevalence of patients with end-stage renal disease is expected to increase to 650,000 by 2010, meaning there will be 160 or more ESRD patients for each practicing nephrologist within four years.< ....

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