Doctor wanted: Small town offers big perks to attract a physician

Page Med today history.

HAVANA, Fla. — For a rural community, this town of 1,750 has been luckier than most. A family doctor has been practicing here for 30 years.

But that ended in December when Mark Newberry, MD, retired. To attract a new doctor, Havana leaders placed wanted ads in local newspapers, posted notices on social media and sweetened the pot with a free doctor’s office equipped with an X-ray, an ultrasound machine and a bone density scanner – all owned by the city.

Local leaders hope the recruitment drive will help attract applicants amid a nationwide doctor shortage.

“It’s important to our community,” said Havana City Manager Kendrah Wilkerson, “in the same way that parks are important and good future planning is important.”

According to a report from the Florida Department of Health, the doctor shortage affects all or part of almost every county, but the least populated counties, such as Gadsden, where Havana is located, have the fewest doctors per 10,000 residents.

Florida’s physician shortage is expected to worsen over the next decade, with one study projecting a statewide need for 18,000 doctors, including 6,000 primary care physicians, by 2035.

“This is a huge problem,” said Matthew Smeltzer, managing partner of Capstone Recruiting Advisors, a company that helps hospitals, doctor’s offices and other employers find and hire doctors. “It probably hits smaller towns the hardest, simply because most people would prefer to live in a mid-sized or large community.”

In this difficult environment, Havana leaders hope that advertisements and rent-free benefits will help their small city stand out and persuade a doctor to practice here.

Wilkerson describes the community, just south of the Georgia border, as a great place to raise a family. Its country roads are lined with farms, pastures and churches. Downtown Main Street is home to antique stores, gift shops, a general store, and restaurants.

“Everything you would imagine in a Hallmark movie kind of fits where we live,” Wilkerson said. “They are people who always care about each other, and neighbors are actually friends.”

It was by offering generous incentives that city leaders brought Newberry to practice in Havana in 1993. The city offered Newberry an initial deal similar to the one it currently offers, and then began providing him with financial support of about $15,000 a year.

Newberry, who has treated about 2,000 patients, declined to be interviewed. “I just retired!” he said in an email, adding that “the city chose unconventional methods” to recruit a doctor.

By subsidizing office space and the use of medical equipment to attract a doctor, Havana is meeting the needs of its residents, Wilkerson said.

Without a doctor in town, some of Newberry’s former patients now have to travel to Tallahassee, about a 30-minute drive southeast of Havana. Others see doctors in Quincy, about a 20-minute drive west.

“We hope they will come back when we find a new doctor,” Havana Mayor Eddie Bass said.

Susan Freiden, a former city manager who retired in 2006, said having a local doctor is also important in meeting the needs of the city’s low-income residents, many of whom are seniors. “Not everyone can travel to Tallahassee to see a doctor,” she said. “Not everyone has transportation.”

But it remains to be seen whether the free office space and amenities will be enough to attract a doctor to Havana. The city’s recruitment drive generated a lot of interest from nurse practitioners, but few primary care doctors applied for the position.

City leaders say they hope to find a family doctor who can practice and prescribe medications independently.

“We would really prefer, you know, to have a real doctor who can handle everything for us,” Bass said.

Smeltzer, the physician headhunter, said primary care doctors are particularly scarce. And while, in his experience, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas are among the places doctors want to live and work, it often takes something more to persuade them to work in a small town, he said.

“If someone wants to practice in a small town, they’re more likely to go where they have connections, whether it’s themselves, their spouse or a loved one,” he said.

The challenge for a community the size of Havana, Smeltzer said, is that “literally no one in this town may have gone to medical school. Or, if there is, maybe this is one.

There is still a glimmer of hope. Smeltzer said younger doctors place a high value on work-life balance and meaningful relationships with their patients — qualities that can give an advantage to an independent practice in a small town.

“We’re hearing a lot more about quality of life and work-life balance in the last 3 to 5 years than ever before,” he said, “and that’s almost in line with compensation in terms of what they’re focused on.”

Freiden, the former Havana city manager, said those are the same values ​​Newberry had when he started practicing here. She even became one of his patients.

“He was just perfect,” she said, “because he wasn’t just concerned about money, if you can imagine that. He was a different type of doctor.”

Fortunately for Havana, the city recently attracted interest from a family doctor who grew up here, went to medical school and hopes to complete a three-year residency at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare in June.

Camron Browning, MD, a 2003 graduate of Northside Havana High School, told the seven city council members in a December interview that his focus was on family medicine and that during his residency he saw thousands of patients, delivered babies and gained experience as a hospitalist.

“My goal,” he said, “was to be able to come home and serve my hometown.”

Smeltzer said Havana’s incentives could be attractive to new doctors, like Browning, who would face colossal start-up costs to establish an independent practice.

After the December interview, the Board voted unanimously to begin contract negotiations with Browning, who said he plans to be ready to see patients as soon as possible after completing his residency.

“I’m here to stay,” Browning told the Council. “This has always been my dream.”

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism on health issues and is one of KFF’s primary operating programs – an independent source of health policy research, polling and journalism. Learn more about KFF.