Phoebe Health System working to filling vacancies

ALBANY, Ga. – The Phoebe Health System is looking for to fill vacancies in a number of openings. I sat down with Phoebe President Scott Steiner to talk about the need to recruit.

Steiner says that at this time they have openings for physicians across every specialization in the health system.

Steiner goes on to say, it’s not just Phoebe, but the whole healthcare industry that’s seeing a shortage in physicians…

“It really speaks to the national shortage of physicians. The United States is 75,000 physicians short today. So, if somebody is going to drop 75,000, we could just be covering what we need. So, this this impacts Phoebe, in fact, impacts every hospital in the United States,” said Scott Steiner, President, Phoebe Health System.

With the Phoebe Health System feeling a need in their neurology department.

“Neurology is a good example. We have three neurologists here. They’re the only neurologists in town, and we really probably need six to handle the volume. So, if you’re a new patient to our neurology practice, it’s going to take you four months to get in to see the doctor,” said Steiner.

But… the situation poses the question: how does the Phoebe Health System go about bringing qualified people to the City of Albany?

“They did a survey of of doctors that are in their residency getting ready to come out and only 1%, one out of 100 said that they were considering world medicine going into into rural medicine. That number needs to be closer to 20%…We want them to come visit and not only love the job, love Phoebe, because we know they love to serve patients, but they need to love the community,” said Steiner.

While it is a burgeoning issue for the health system, Steiner wants to reassure the public that they haven’t had to curtail any services in the meantime.

Steiner says the Phoebe Health System has roughly 50 openings for physicians at this time.

Brian Roche reporting.

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