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Brockville General Hospital |
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News Release |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Brockville—Brockville General Hospital (BGH) hosted a wine and cheese at the Brockville Yacht Club June 22nd for local businesses and organizations that had supported the hospital’s physician recruitment efforts over the past decade with their contributions to the BGH Physician Incentive Package. “We want to say thank you for joining the work to bring much-needed physicians to the area,” explains BGH President and CEO Ray Marshall. “The need was critical to the hospital’s continued ability to provide quality patient care and we couldn’t have enjoyed the success we did without the community-sponsored BGH Physician Incentive Package.” Back in 2000, when the physician shortage began to be felt province-wide, the BGH Board realized that proactive measures would be needed. A six-month physician recruitment and retention program was launched that is still in successful operation today. One of the tools in the program was the BGH Physician Incentive Package—a collection of community contacts and business discounts to help doctors and their families relocate successfully to the area. “We not only gave the doctors their contacts,” says Susan Ashley, owner of Ashley Interiors and key organizer of the incentive package,” but we would also bring them personally to the businesses and services for an introduction. In addition to that, we would offer different day trips or outings to showcase the beautiful Thousand Island region we live in.” Ashley got involved with the recruitment program when BGH came close to closing its emergency department due to lack of physician support. “I heard about it and thought that’s awful,” says Ashley. “We can’t let that happen, and we can’t let the hospital try to fight this on its own. The competition is too fierce. The community has to step up to the plate, too.” Ashley started going to all her business contacts to ask what incentives they could offer physicians thinking of locating to the area. “No one said no,” she says. “Everybody said ‘What can I do to help?’” Over the past decade, a total of 71 physicians have been recruited with a loss of only 29, making a net gain of 42 doctors for BGH, says hospital physician recruiter Carlene MacDonald. The competition has lessened and the retention level has remained high. Consequently, the Physician Recruitment Incentive Package program is closing its doors. “When we needed our community partners,” says Ray Marshall, “they were there. With their help, we turned a challenging situation around and we thank them for that.”
Incentive Package organizer Susan Ashley is flanked by (left) BGH Board of Governors Chair Norm Millar and BGH President Ray Marshall. For more information, please contact:
Healthy people – Outstanding Care
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