Hartford Business Journal

14 Hartford Business Journal • February 12, 2018 • www.HartfordBusiness.com By Matt Pilon mpilon@HartfordBusiness.com O ver the past six years, independent Bristol Hospital has doubled down on recruiting medical providers — lit- erally — growing the size of its core physician group to 63 doctors and 40 other licensed practitioners. That hiring fits squarely into an industry-wide trend of medical provid- ers shifting to hospital system-affiliated employment, either in hospitals them- selves or in their ever-growing networks of off-site outpatient practices. An estimated one-third of U.S. doc- tors are independent, down approxi- mately 50 percent since the turn of the century, according to consulting giant Accenture. For recruiters, it's a competitive market, particularly for primary care doctors and in-demand specialists, such as geriatric psychiatrists. "You're forced to compete with a gazillion organizations," said Bristol Hospital CEO Kurt Barwis, who added it can take years to fill a position with nearby competitors like Starling Physi- cians, Hartford Hospital and St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center — along with out-of-state providers — all woo- ing the same talent. In addition to touting its com- munity environment and the level of control group-practice physicians have over clinical activities, Bristol Multispecialty Group — the hospital's core group of employed doctors — has tried to gain a competitive edge by recruiting foreign-born physicians, de- spite complex immigration rules that make it difficult for immigrant doctors to work long term in the U.S. Of the Multispeciality Group's cur- rent doc crop, a dozen are here on J-1 visas: A temporary visa that's common among foreign medical graduates who do their residencies in the U.S. and hope to make a career here. Among those visa holders is Dr. Nandini Menon, a Canadian primary care physician who Bristol Multispe- cialty Group hired last year after she finished her post-grad medical train- ing at St. Barnabas Hospital in The Bronx, following medical school on the Caribbean island of Dominica. Menon said she was drawn to Bristol because it was able to secure crucial waivers for a number of J-1 doctors that allow them to remain in the U.S. longer, with a potential path toward International Recruitment As competition for talent intensifies, Connecticut hospitals' demand for immigrant doctors on the rise HBJ PHOTOS | STEVE LASCHEVER Bristol Multispeciality Group hired Dr. Nandini Menon (left), a primary care physician from Canada, last year under a visa waiver program. Her Bristol colleague, Dr. Vanessa Malit, said foreign physicians at the hospital-affiliated group have raised the caliber of care it provides. Bristol Hospital CEO Kurt Barwis says he's got plenty of competition trying to hire doctors.

• Cover