Association between rural hospitals' residencies and recruitment and retention of physicians

To analyze the association between rural hospitals' participation in residency training and their subsequent success in physician recruitment and retention.

The units of observation were 1,789 short-term, general hospitals that were located in nonmetropolitan U.S. countries, had medical staff information available, and did not close, open, or merge from 1985 through 1989. Multivariate analysis was done using ordinary least-squares estimation. The dependent variable was the change in the size of the medical staff at each hospital. Several characteristics of the hospitals and their counties were used as independent variables, the primary one being the number of housestaff at each hospital in 1985.

The 66 rural hospitals that invested in housestaff were found to be more successful in physician recruitment and retention in subsequent years. On average, for every eight housestaff in 1985, each hospital gained approximately one additional physician on its medical staff from 1985 through 1989.

The rural hospitals with residencies were more likely to be successful at recruiting and retaining physician staff than were the hospitals without residencies. Because most of the residencies were probably in primary care specialties, this finding is suggestive in light of the national need for primary care training as well as for successful recruiting strategies for rural hospitals.