It is no secret in my house that the TV show, “Royal Pains,” is one of my favorites. The show is about a small concierge medical practice, run by two very different brothers in the Hamptons. Although the quirky show has some hard-to-believe plot lines, it does bring light to some real issues in the healthcare industry; most recently, finding and placing a quality healthcare professional.
In one particular episode, this is the first time in the history of HankMed that the main character’s Hank, the doctor, and Evan, the CFO, have needed to hire additional doctors to supplement their busy practice. If you watched the show, you’ll remember that Evan went through a rigorous search to find a new physician and discovers the new doctor doesn’t always have the BEST bedside manner.
Healthcare staffing agencies and recruiters are all too familiar with this scenario. Many nurses look great on paper but good grades and tests don’t always transfer well to the patient’s bedside. Although it is not always the least expensive way of hiring, some of the most successful healthcare staffing agencies is those who jump through hoops to test, interview and do a thorough check on their prospective healthcare professional. These agencies want to ensure they are sending out a great nurse or physician and they are proud to have this healthcare professional represent their organization.
What are some of the factors you should look for before hiring?
1. Competence
As our friend’s at Prophecy always say, “Test before you invest.” Testing is SOOO important and should be a standard part of your credentialing process. This will ensure you hire most qualified healthcare professional, reduce DNR’s and more importantly, stay out of court! For more information on testing, check out a great blog written by Prophecy on Top 5 Reasons Staffing Agencies Should Test Before They Invest.
2. Communication Skills
In any industry, no matter what position you are hiring for, good communication skills are necessary BUT with healthcare professionals it is even more important. They need to have the ability to talk to patients and their families on their level explaining clearly treatments and prognosis. Unlike the new TV doctor, Dr. Saconi at HankMed, who uses medical language no one understands, a healthcare professional may not always have an “interpreter” to put the medical jargon into layman’s terms.
3. Personality and Compassion
This seems like a no brainer, right? We have all heard the horror stories of nurses and doctors with poor bedside manner and who show little compassion. Recruiters need to use their gut instincts and keen senses to find a healthcare professional that possess good bedside manner. If you were sick, would you want a doctor or nurse who is curt and acts as if they didn’t care? Again, going back to the Remember compassion is even more important to staff caregivers with excellent bedside manner for clients specializing in hospice, rehab or long-term care.
4. Confidentiality and Honesty
Most patients and all healthcare professionals are familiar with HIPAA laws by now. Quite frankly, we are inundated with them to the point where people just sign and don’t read the fine print anymore but HIPAA laws prevail. In this day and age of instant communication, it is extremely important to know how healthcare professionals deal with social media and HIPAA compliance.
5. Personal Presentation
A recruiter at a successful nurse-owned healthcare staffing agency once told me their agency always looks for someone who has a neat and clean personal presentation. It may seem obvious but hospitals are a place where germs are easily spread and a healthcare professional without good hygiene may not be someone you want representing your organization. How well they present themselves can be a reflection of your agency and again this is where a personal interview is necessary.
6. Team Player
When a healthcare professional works for a healthcare staffing agency, they have two teams they need to play on: the facility and the agency. In a facility, the healthcare professional’s team skills and communicating within a team can be a matter of life and death, literally. A doctor or nurse cannot be so engrossed in themselves that they forget about working together as a team – all for the patient’s good. As far as the agency side goes, if the doctor or nurse wants to be paid in a timely manner, or should an issue with credentials develop, they need to feel secure that their agency will back them so working as part of the agency team is important as well.
Evan at HankMed definitely did not have a good concise list of what to find in a Quality Healthcare placement as he had obviously never hired a doctor before. If this was real life he should have hired a healthcare staffing agency to find a great placement. It will be interesting to see how poor the new character, Dr. Saconi, survives – perhaps he is a diamond in the rough.
What advice would you give Evan if he were going to hire someone for the practice again?
