Timmins and District Hospital hires a physician recruiter

The Timmins and District Hospital says it is in the business of serving its patients. Now, it's stepping up efforts to go beyond its walls in order to help the community.

Dr. Doug Arnold, the hospital's chief of staff, said the time is right to hire a physician recruiter to attract more doctors and specialists to the team.

“It’s become evident over the last couple of years that we needed to devote more resources and time and expertise to be able to be successful in our recruitment efforts," said Arnold.

"So that’s what led up to the decision in the last calendar year to hire a full-time physician recruiter."

Corey Krupa has been on the job for a month. One of his strategies is engaging with Northern Ontario Medical School students.

“We have seven med school students from NOSM here, as well as up to eight family medicine residents that we can really reach out to and make sure they feel welcome," said Krupa.

"That they feel valued and that we really get them integrated into the community."

Another strategy will be to travel to medical schools throughout the province and country.

“They’re going to be having job fairs and making sure that we’re promoting Timmins," he said.

"Promoting what our needs are, what the opportunities are, what it looks like to practise here."

Krupa said he will encourage them to either do a site visit, to locum here for weeks at a time or just come for a weekend.

Arnold said the community can also help recruiting efforts.

“The community needs to understand they also have a role to play in making the physicians as a collective group welcome in our community and get them engaged," he said.

"When the family is engaged outside of work here, I think we’re going to be much more successful and we’ve got a great place to live, right?”

The hospital said any organizations or businesses interested in learning more about what they can offer physicians during site visits can connect with Krupa directly.