Meeting the Needs of Safety Net Health Systems—Curative Executive & Academic Search Provides Solutions

Background

Safety net hospitals are healthcare institutions that provide care to individuals regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay. These hospitals predominantly serve low-income, uninsured, underinsured, and at-risk populations, often providing a significant level of care for these groups. Safety net hospitals are located across urban and rural areas and include public hospitals, academic medical centers, and certain private hospitals. 

Because of their commitment to serving all patients, these hospitals often face unique financial and operational challenges. Despite these challenges, safety net hospitals play a crucial role in the healthcare system, providing access to care for those who may not have it otherwise and offering services that other hospitals in the community might not provide, such as trauma care, burn care, and mental health services.

Safety net hospitals, like all healthcare organizations, require strong leadership to guide their mission and operations. Given the unique challenges and patient populations these hospitals serve, they look for physician leaders who possess specific characteristics and skill sets. These include:

• Community-Oriented: Physician leaders in safety net hospitals should have a strong commitment to community health and the mission of serving patient populations with unique cultural barriers and financial challenges. They should understand the social determinants of health and be committed to addressing health disparities.
• Clinical Expertise: While this is a requirement for any physician leader, in safety net hospitals, it might be beneficial to have a background in primary care, emergency medicine, or another specialty that's particularly relevant to the patient population.
• Strong Advocacy Skills: Given the financial and policy challenges that safety net hospitals often face, physician leaders need to be strong advocates. This might mean lobbying for policy changes, securing funding, or making the case for the hospital's mission to the public.
• Cultural Competence: Physician leaders in safety net hospitals need to understand and respect the diverse cultural backgrounds of the patients they serve. This includes being sensitive to cultural differences that may affect patient care and working to ensure that the hospital's services are accessible and appropriate for all patients.

Challenges

Safety net hospitals often face similar hiring challenges. Some of the common obstacles these types of hospitals include:

Budget Constraints: Safety net hospitals often operate under tight budget constraints. They may not have the resources to offer competitive salaries, making it difficult to attract and retain qualified professionals.

Geographic Location: Many safety net hospitals are located in urban or rural areas that professionals may not find attractive. This can make it more difficult to recruit and retain staff.

High-Stress Environment: Working in a safety net hospital can be stressful due to high patient loads, complex medical conditions, and high levels of uncompensated care. This can lead to higher rates of burnout and turnover.

Lack of Resources: Safety net hospitals often lack the latest technology and resources, which can make them less appealing to potential employees who are interested in working with cutting-edge medical technology.

Language and Cultural Barriers: Given the diverse populations they serve, safety net hospitals often need staff who can communicate effectively with patients who speak different languages and come from different cultural backgrounds. Finding such professionals can be a challenge.

Reputation and Perception: Often, there is a perception that working in a safety net hospital is less prestigious or rewarding than working in a more traditional hospital or academic setting. This can make it more difficult to attract top talent.

Process

Given the host of challenges that safety net hospitals are faced with, many prominent institutions have turned to Curative Executive & Academic Search to effectively navigate their unique hiring challenges and ensure they have the staff they need to provide quality care to their patients.

While our process is tailored to meet the needs and priorities of each unique client, engagements with safety net clients usually include the following:

On-Site Deep Dive: Every successful search starts with a solid foundation. We go on-site to meet with the client’s Executive Leadership Team, Selection Committee, and Talent Acquisition Team to gain a nuanced understanding of the attributes of the role, the local patient population, and the mission and values of the organization. After all, a successful search for a safety net system is not just finding a well-skilled physician leader, but a leader that aligns with the values of an organization and the community.

Developing a Multichannel Sourcing Strategy: After an extensive intake and discovery process, our team develops a robust sourcing strategy, leveraging the in-depth industry expertise of our Partners and the numerous digital sourcing tools developed exclusively for Curative Executive & Academic Search by Doximity.

1. Targeted Search with CINDI: We first utilize the Candidate Intelligent Network Driven Index (CINDI), a proprietary technology sourcing tool, to jumpstart the search. The CINDI tool analyzes a candidate’s professional summary, past research, presentations, and 50+ additional data points within their Doximity profile to identify specific, healthcare-based keywords and generate high-potential matches. Using keywords such as “health equity”, “healthcare disparities”, and “z”, we’re able to identify candidates that truly possess the domain knowledge and a strong interest in working with underserved patient populations.
2. Speed & Scale with Doximity: We launch SMART job posts on the Doximity network, home to 80% of all U.S. physicians, to bring speed and scalability to our client’s search. Our algorithms automatically identify and show your jobs to the most relevant candidates based on their interests, career preferences, and experiences. Avoiding a “Spray and Pray” approach, our targeted strategy allows our team to connect with high-potential candidates quickly due to the strong alignment between the opportunity and the candidate.

• More Eyeballs with High Visibility Real Estate: Since we’re owned by Doximity, we’re able to advertise our jobs on highly engaged online real estate that no one else has access to. This includes inserting native ads within the widely read Doximity Medical Business Digest weekly email and showcasing job postings within the Doximity Career Center. 

1. Identify Mission-Minded Leaders at Similar Facilities: We tap into similar safety net facilities or FQHCs to complement our digital sourcing strategies, meeting, and vetting mission-minded leaders with the right expertise and empathy looking to take on their next big challenge and make a real impact.

Results

We’ve successfully placed clinician leaders with numerous safety net hospitals across the country. For the majority of our safety net searches, we’re able to present multiple qualified candidates within the first 60 days of the search, with 97% of our searches being successfully filled within the first three candidates presented and interviewed. To date, we have a 100% retention rate of those candidates placed. 

Some of our select safety net clients include:

Harris Health System – Houston, TX

• Chief Physician Executive
• Director of Nursing

Alameda Health System – Oakland, CA

• Associate Chief Medical Officer – Ambulatory Care
• Associate Chief Medical Officer – Acute Care
• Chair, Department of Medicine

Parkland Hospital & Health System – Dallas, TX

• VP of Clinical Research
• Director of Nursing

UC Davis Health System – Sacramento, CA

• Medical Director, Population Health
• Medical Director, Accountable Care

Our consultative approach to understanding our clients’ pain points doesn’t just apply to our clients – they extend to our placed candidates as well. Says one of our recently-placed physician leaders, “Working with Curative Executive & Academic Search ensured that my core values were aligned with the organization and at the same time I received individual attention making the recruitment process seamless.”

Curative Executive & Academic Search realizes that the communities served by safety net hospitals primarily represent very diverse backgrounds. We understand the importance of identifying diverse candidates for these roles who will represent the communities they serve.  With mindful compliance to this diversity, 71% of the searches filled with our safety net clients have been with female candidates, and over 75% have been filled with candidates representing various minority groups.

Recruit Mission-Minded Physician Leaders with Curative

To learn more about how Curative Executive & Academic Search can help your safety net hospital fill your most challenging leadership roles, please contact executivesearch@curativetalent.com.