How to Promote Workforce Development for Physicians and APPs

By Christopher Cheney

Beebe Healthcare has launched several workforce development programs for physicians and advanced practice providers (APP).

Beebe has a robust team that recruits physicians and APPs, says Paul Sierzenski, MD, senior vice president and chief physician executive at the health system.

“We have a team that is working diligently so that when we have clinicians who have interest in joining us, they understand our vision, what we are looking to do for our communities, and know that we are here to help them be successful in their clinical careers,” he says.

Beebe looks for physician and APP candidates who share the health system’s goals and mission, according to Sierzenski. The goals of the health system’s strategic plan include providing access to care, being best in core clinical competencies, being the employer and partner of choice, being patient-centric for all people, and being agile and sustainable.

Workforce development for physicians

Beebe is committed to the development of its physicians, Sierzenski explains.

“An important element is how we can further develop physicians, and that may be new physicians we recruit or as we grow physicians and help train them in our residency program,” he says. “We are growing our undergraduate and graduate medical education program to help develop physicians for our communities.”

“We have four family medicine residents per year, with a goal to grow that number to as many as eight residents,” Sierzenski says. “We are in our cap-building timeline, which means that in order to get funding from the federal government we have until June 30, 2028, to grow the program to six to eight residents.”

The health system plans to launch an internal medicine residency with eight residents per year, as well as a transitional year residency that will bolster physicians’ experience in specialties such as anesthesia and radiology.

There are several reasons why Beebe believes offering residency and fellowship programs is important for physician workforce development, according to Sierzenski.

“First, our family medicine residency is defined as a rural medicine residency, so we have more obstetrical experience for those physicians, and we are helping them understand how to connect with communities,” he says.

“Second, we believe we should be providing advanced training in a couple of key areas,” Sierzenski says. “We are looking to establish a fellowship in palliative and hospice care, a fellowship in geriatrics because we have a growing retirement community, and a fellowship in sports medicine.”

“Third, even though we may not have fellowships that cascade off our internal medicine residency program, if folks are spending three years training and living in our community then pursue a fellowship outside of our community, there is a high likelihood that they will come back and work in the community where they trained as residents,” he says.

“For our employed clinicians, we have a robust benefits package that includes support for individuals to go and get advanced training,” he says. “We have partnerships with other organizations for advanced training such as a Master’s degree in business.”

Christopher Cheney is the CMO editor at HealthLeaders.