TCBN: Inside Munson's Physician Recruiting Challenges

Population growth, demographics, retirement trends, tourism and industry-wide shortages are just a few of the factors that play into the physician recruitment equation at Munson Healthcare. Though typically associated with Traverse City first and foremost, the Munson system spans eight community hospitals and serves approximately 540,000 residents across its 29-county, 14,667-square-mile territory – “about the size of Vermont and Delaware combined,” as the Munson website puts it.

Munson relies on some 7,500 employees to keep that sprawling system running, about 1,000 of whom are physicians. As with most local employers these days, hiring challenges permeate every category of the organization, from service workers to nurses.

According to Munson leaders, physician recruitment is one of the trickiest aspects of operating a healthcare system – though not necessarily in the same ways that hiring is difficult in other segments of the northern Michigan workforce.

“It's a little bit different when we're recruiting physicians versus when we're recruiting other positions,” said Munson Healthcare Chief Operating Officer Laura Glenn. “For example, the relative levels of pay are different, which means things like housing are just less of a barrier when hiring doctors than with other members of our clinical team, like nurses or radiology techs.”

For the rest of this story, head over to the Traverse City Business News (The Ticker's sister publication) and browse the November issue, which focuses on healthcare along with engineering, recreation and more.

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