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The Need

Maine and the nation as a whole are experiencing a severe and growing shortage among primary care physicians and dentists as well as students in training. In Maine, member health centers face the barrier of recruiting in a predominately rural state to some of our most remote regions. In addition, Maine health centers must have robust national recruitment effort, as Maine is home to only one medical school and no dental schools. These barriers only add to the effects of the physician shortage and further impact our ability to recruit primary care providers, dentists, mental/behavioral health specialists and specialty care providers to Maine’s health centers and our underserved communities.

Maine Primary Care Association (MPCA) has been assisting health centers with recruitment efforts for over 12 years. An important aspect of these efforts involves 3RNet, the leading clearinghouse in the US for candidates interested in practicing in underserved rural communities. MPCA has been involved with 3RNet and its nationally prominent website since its inception and continues to be the Maine State Organizational Member. MPCA is active with state and national efforts to address our potentially calamitous provider supply “pipeline” problems. Most recently, MPCA has started to implement a progressive recruitment strategy in response to the increasing concerns about shortages of primary care physicians.

In January 2007, MPCA unveiled an interactive CD-Rom recruitment tool which includes a video, featuring practicing physicians at community health centers who share why they chose to work in a community health center and why they chose to live in Maine. These CD-Rom’s have been distributed nationwide to students, medical schools and practicing physicians.

In addition to the interactive CD-Rom, MPCA’s recruitment campaign will also include:

• An extension of the MPCA website to include job opportunities postings and the ability for clinicians and students to apply online for positions and to our student and resident placement programs
• A four-seasons focused, year-round ad campaign for print
• An updated display/exhibit booth for event appearances, consistent with our recruitment theme, Follow your Heart. Make a Difference. Make it in Maine.

Internally, MPCA is developing a new database to allow for efficient information tracking, reporting and communications. In addition, we are in the process of developing web-based tools to monitor the effectiveness of the individual components in the recruitment campaign.

Lastly, in recognizing the correlation between retention and recruitment, MPCA continues to assist health centers with their retention plans. At the state level, MPCA acknowledges community health center clinicians for their achievements on an annual basis with our Clinical Excellence Award, as well as our Service Award, which is presented to medical staff of all disciplines who have dedicated 20 years or more of service to the patients of Maine’s Primary Care Safety Net.

MPCA has been successful in recruiting dozens of physicians for all primary care specialties across the State of Maine. In addition, we have acknowledged over a dozen clinicians for their outstanding achievement and dedication to strengthening Maine’s primary care safety net.

Our interactive CD-Rom has been recognized by clinicians, community partners and representatives at the state and federal level as an excellent recruitment tool and resource for spreading the word about community health centers. As a result, over 600 CD-Rom’s have been distributed since January 2007.

For more information about this program, contact:

James R. Dowling, MS
Workforce Development Manager
Maine Primary Care Association
73 Winthrop Street
Augusta, ME 04330
Tel: 207-621-0677 Ext. 203
Fax: 207-621-0577
E-mail: jrdowling@mepca.org

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