PRACTICE PEARLS

Identifying the “right” individuals to hire can be challenging. Whether you're bringing on a new physician, resident, or staff member, you want to make sure the individual not only has the education, training, and skills needed but also is a good fit for your practice.

To improve the hiring process, approach it in a more holistic, mission-driven, and systematic way.¹ First, use your mission statement to identify important experiences and attributes you want the new hire to have (these will vary depending on the position). Then, use the 10–15 priority items you identify to compose a rubric for assessing candidates. Define levels of achievement/ability for each item and assign point values for weighting. For example, part of our residency program's mission is to develop the physician workforce in our state. We have found that residents from our state (versus out-of-state) are much more likely to remain in our state after residency completion. Therefore, when selecting residents, previous experience in our state is one of the attributes we value (no experience equals zero points, some experience scores one point, and extensive experience scores two points).

Once you've created the rubric, determine the most efficient way to procure the information (e.g., through the CV/application, a screening call, or an interview). You may want to assign one or two people to do this initial assessment. The rubric can also help you decide which interview questions to ask candidates.

Having a systematic way to review and evaluate applicants can decrease stress, improve efficiency, minimize bias, and help you assemble a mission-fit team.

Persistent counseling occasionally fails to persuade vaccine-hesitant families to vaccinate according to the recommended immunization schedule from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Some families have objections to specific vaccines but may be open to others. Therefore, instead of dismissing families from your practice for vaccine refusal (a practice that appears to be increasing), consider compromising to develop an individualized schedule that integrates their values, stated objections, and preferences with child-specific health considerations and public health priorities. Physicians who successfully do this may get families to accept more vaccines than they otherwise would.