TimeLineRecruiting,

a retainer-based medical and allied-health professional recruiting firm,

said recently that it will offer free networking services to assist healthcare

executives deal with the loss of critical skills.

"Rural

healthcare providers today are facing a critical shortage of physicians

with thousands of general and specialty practice positions unfilled across

rural America," said Van Allen, CEO, TimeLine Recruiting. "A

call-up of even a percentage of the physicians currently in the military

reserves would prove devastating to the ability of rural healthcare facilities

to sustain and provide services - unless they begin planning and thinking

creatively now."

More than 4,400

physicians are currently enrolled in the military reserves, according

to the Department of Defense. During the Gulf War of 1990-91, nearly 3,400

physicians and 47,000 medical personnel were called out of public and

private practice by the U.S. armed forces into active duty.

"In some

rural areas, the loss of even one physician from a healthcare network

could cut physician staff by half, while the loss of a single individual

with a specialty skill - such as orthopedics - could result in the loss

of that medical service in an entire community creating a substantial

surgical revenue deficit," Allen said.

Rural healthcare

providers are already inventorying their staffing to identify the potential

loss of skills and operational revenue they'd face in the event of a call-up

and constructing contingency plans to replace the loss, Allen said. Those

plans would likely draw from a

trio of options:

(1) Securing

locum tenens or temporary replacements - a very expensive option and sure

to be in even more demand nationwide.

(2) Recruiting

and relocating permanent replacements - already a difficult task as evidenced

(3) Enticing

remaining private practice physicians to dedicate additional hours to

their schedules and commute to impacted facilities in neighboring communities

to set-up and staff local clinics there.

"The challenge

for hospital executives and the remaining providers will be daunting,"

Allen said.

To assist in

the latter scenario - likely to be the situation in most rural communities

- Allen said TimeLine Recruiting will assist hospital executives to replace

any physician called up to active military service by providing a free

networking service to contact neighboring satellite healthcare facilities

and recruit nearby medical professionals to hold local clinics in the

affected facilities.

"The infrastructure

for such a networking service is already in place as we're speaking to

thousands of physicians around the country in our normal course of our

recruiting work," Allen said. "While this is just one extra

step for us, we're hoping that we can provide an added resource for executives

who will be working hard to keep their facilities operating and providing

greatly needed medical care to their communities."

Allen said

he's spoken to a number of executives about the idea and is hopeful about

the concept. "We're all going to need to pull together to get the

job done," he said.

Healthcare

providers interested in the service can reach Allen at TimeLine Recruiting

and on the Internet at www.timelinerecruiting.com.

According to

Rural Information Center Health Service (RICHS), the rural medical community

is understaffed by as much as 23.7 percent in some specialties, such as

family practitioners. Both RICHS and the American Medical Association

report that only 10 percent of the nation's doctors practice in rural

regions - where 20 percent of the nation's population lives. U.S. Census

data also supports the dearth of physicians in rural America, with rural

states such as Idaho, Mississippi, Alaska, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Iowa, Nevada,

South Dakota and Arkansas ranking among the top ten states with the lowest

doctor/population ratio.

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