Taylor Leddin-McMaster (Host): Hello, listeners. Thanks for tuning into the Well Within Reach podcast, brought to you by Riverside Healthcare. I'm your host, Taylor Leddin-McMaster. And joining me today is Ashley Moritz, Physician Recruitment Manager at Riverside Healthcare. She's here to discuss physician recruitment and what makes physicians choose Riverside. Welcome.

Ashley Moritz: Thanks, Taylor. Thank you for having me.

Host: Yeah, thanks for being here. So, this is your first time on the podcast?

Ashley Moritz: Yes.

Host: Before we get into today's subject, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your role here at Riverside?

Ashley Moritz: Absolutely. So, this year, this coming July, I will be celebrating my 13th work anniversary at Riverside.

Host: Nice.

Ashley Moritz: So yeah, I'll be with the organization 13 years. That entire time, i've always been in the human resources recruitment space. But as you mentioned, my role for the last almost five years now has been in physician recruitment and then, in the last three years, physician recruitment manager. I'm responsible for a lot of things and really exciting things at Riverside, which obviously we'll kind of get into. But the main role, I guess I should say, is interviewing, sourcing and hiring physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants to Riverside.

Host: Yeah. That's got to be a lot to be aware of the different service lines and all of those things. What's the new technology that you can tout that we have. So, there's a lot to keep track of. So, I commend you for all of that.

Ashley Moritz: Thank you.

Host: Can you tell us what physician recruitment looks like at Riverside and how many people are on the team?

Ashley Moritz: Yes. So, our full team, if you will, consists of myself and then another full-time physician recruitment generalist or recruiter as we call it. And then, I do have a part-time sourcer as well that does a lot of screenings and sourcing for our various openings.

Host: Okay. So, what other teams and departments do you work with within Riverside?

Ashley Moritz: Yeah. So, we really do work with a lot of different teams within the organization. So, of course, we work with our leadership team, our executive team, different vice presidents, a lot in regard to the Riverside Medical Group as a whole. We work with a lot of the leaders, directors, site supervisors within all of our different service lines. So, I work with them very closely as it relates to scheduling the interviews, working with the provider schedules, and just a lot of back and forth with our Riverside Medical Group team. And then, also, what some people might not think of, but like our OR staff.

So if I have a surgeon interviewing, I'm going to reach out to our Director of Perioperative Services and schedule them with a tour with that group. We do community tours. I have great resources within the community within Kankakee County; a local realtor that I have kind of toured the candidates around if they request that.

And then, obviously, of course, we work very closely with our current physicians and advanced practice providers that are employed with Riverside, because they're a crucial part in the decision-making of hiring their future partner.

Host: Absolutely. Yeah. So again, that's a lot of facets to keep up with and keep everyone in the loop on. And I'm sure with this next question, it changes quite drastically from day to day, but what would you say the average day looks like for you?

Ashley Moritz: Yeah. As you can imagine, there really is no set schedule for what I do every day. It kind of looks a little bit differently, but a lot of what I do consists of conversations, whether that's conversations with potential candidates, whether that's reaching out and coordinating a physician site visit. It's a lot of interaction and just a lot of communication with various groups. But I do also field a lot of questions with current candidates that we maybe have offers out to. So, kind of working through that negotiation process with them and really kind of guiding them through those steps.

I'm also pretty heavily involved in our mentor program. So, we do have a physician and advanced practice mentor-mentee program that all of our new providers are tied with a mentor. And then, that helps them get acclimated to the practice. So, I do a lot of work with that as well as retention.

And then, I have a pretty big involvement in onboarding of new providers as well. So, I assist in those meetings. That way, we get them all set for orientation. So, there's a lot that goes into that. And then, obviously, I always try to keep an open door policy. I try to be a resource to all of our current physicians, if they ever have any questions or followup or just any ongoing resources that they might need as well. Even if I'm not the right person, I can kind of guide them, because we do create such good relationships throughout the recruitment process. So, just a lot of that.

And then, obviously, if I have a candidate on site for a visit, that really is like the priority of my day. So, just kind of guiding them from interview to interview. Making sure everything goes smoothly and very well-coordinated, very well-orchestrated is a big part of my week,

Host: So, a big part of that I would imagine is identifying candidates who would be a good fit for Riverside. You mentioned the sourcer who kind of works for that. How do you do that? What do you look at?

Ashley Moritz: The biggest thing that I always tell people, first and foremost, when I'm looking to interview someone and potentially bring them in for an onsite visit and then even go a step further to hiring them, what I first think about is would this person be a good cultural fit for Riverside and for our organization, for our community, for our patients. And secondly is this someone that I would want to take care of me or my family members? So, those are big questions, right? Because a lot of us live here locally. A lot of us get care here. And we want to make sure that we're hiring people that would take care of our loved ones. So, those are some of the most important questions that I think we look at organizationally on identifying a good fit.

And then, also, we take the feedback from everyone that met with that person throughout the interview process. We take feedback very seriously. And I think it just helps give everybody a voice kind of in the process.

We also, as you can imagine, do like a very thorough reference checking process. So, that helps us in our decision-making. We of course take into consideration their training program and their expertise and what kind of services they want to bring to this community. And so, it's a lot of things kind of combined. But ultimately, we just want to hire good people that want to do good in our community.

Host: Taking that a step further, factoring out education because obviously you have to have some form of certain education to be a doctor, right?

Ashley Moritz: Yes.

Host: What are some of the required criteria for a physician to be hired by Riverside, regardless of their specialty? Like, what do you see across physicians?

Ashley Moritz: As far as the criteria, kind of going back to that like reference checking process. So, we obviously check references. We vet out our candidates very thoroughly. And then, all of our candidates to be credentialed to be a part of our Riverside Medical Group go through a thorough credentialing application and vetting process with our physician services team.

Riverside does a phenomenal job of validating licensures needed, the credentials needed, to make sure that the right people are coming through our doors. And we're really able to give that exceptional care. So, we pride ourselves organizationally in the high quality outcomes that we have. And so, with that does come quite a process, just well-organized step-by-step. Making sure that these individuals are going to be the quality care providers that we need in our community. So, a lot of backend work kind of goes into that process. We look at a lot more than just what's on paper. We kind of factor in a lot of different things, but there's a lot that goes into it.

Host: Well, great. Before we continue our conversation, we're going to take a moment to talk about the importance of primary care.

At Riverside, our primary care providers are right here in your community, offering personalized care for you and your family close to home and connected to the specialists and services you may need. Having a primary care provider means having someone who knows you, listens to you, and helps you stay well through every stage of life, from annual checkups and preventative screenings to managing everyday concerns when they pop up. Because remarkable care should never be out of reach. Remarkable care right where you live.

To find a primary care provider who's right for you and your family, visit myrhc.net/acceptingnew.

All right. And we're back talking about physician recruitment. Ashley, in your experience, what would you say often compels physicians to choose Riverside?

Ashley Moritz: So, I think, first and foremost, when a physician comes to interview at Riverside, I cannot tell you, Taylor, how many times they are overly impressed with our facilities and our beautiful campus. Like, that is by far one of the first eye-catching things that candidates will say to me. So, that is obviously on the site visit. But really, I feel like throughout an interview day, I do have so many candidates comment on how kind our staff is, how gracious our executive team is, how everyone's just very helpful, very friendly, answering all their questions.

I think candidates are always impressed with the job tenure at Riverside. We have a lot of people that have been in the organization for a long time. So, I think a lot of that just comes with their positive experience from the interview day when they very first come on site. And then, I think a lot of what kind of helps physicians decide to come here ultimately is just the services that are available at Riverside—the extensive OR, the amazing equipment that we have, and just the state-of-the-art technology is very appealing to physicians.

I think the fact that we are a smaller community-based hospital. We're not owned by any larger entity. Riverside is our own community hospital. I think that's very appealing. And I think that's a huge draw to a lot of our physicians. And just that we have the need for the patients, for them to be able to practice what they want to practice and to be busy. And I think that's something that's really important to them too. They want to make an impact. And I think physicians feel that they can do that at Riverside.

Host: Yeah, for sure. And I think that's kind of across the board, the appeal for many people who are about to work here. They see those attributes. You mentioned the tenure people at Riverside and how physicians might find that impressive. So, what would you say compels physicians to continue practicing at Riverside?

Ashley Moritz: Yeah. So first and foremost, I think our patients, we have a community full of some of the most kind and appreciative patients. I think our physicians are just so grateful for the relationship and the bond that they build with not only their patients, but the family members too. So, we're very blessed in that regard.

Secondly, I think physicians stay because of our staff. We have amazing team members. Physicians especially and nurse practitioners and physician assistants, they work so many hours, right? I mean, they put in so much time and dedication. And So, It really matters the people that they work with. And I think that we have some amazing teams, leaders, that makes them want to stay.

And then, lastly, I feel like our physicians really do have a voice and what I mean by that is they really have a say in how they want to have their practice run. Different services, different Procedures, different programs that they want to implement. Our leadership team, I think, works so closely with our physicians and really gives them a voice and gives them the autonomy to really make it their own practice. And I think the organization recognizes that physicians are the lifeblood of our hospital. So, I think that makes it really impactful for them, because they really, truly feel like they are making a difference.

Host: So, what would you say is something about recruitment or specifically physician recruitment that most people might not know?

Ashley Moritz: The process of recruiting physicians, really it is just that—it's a process. So, some providers that we offer positions to may have a full year left in training. So, I might offer a new graduate physician in the fall of last year, and they might not even be starting job until the end of summer this year. So, it really is a process from when you initially identify a candidate, complete an interview, do the negotiations, the credentialing. It just takes time and it's a lot of patience. It's a lot of collaboration. It's a lot of back and forth. It is one of the most rewarding parts of my job when a physician that I've been working with for a really long time, and they finally walk through the doors, they finally start orientation. And it's just so exciting and gratifying that sometimes it just feels like a long time coming. But when they officially start and they really kind of take off and it's very rewarding. But it can be a grind, it can take time. And so, you just kind of have to be patient, trust the process, and know that everything's going to work out the way it's meant to be.

Host: Yeah, that's a great way to look at it, because they say good things take time. And I've said this a couple of times already, but you keep a lot organized in order to do this. And my final question is, if there's anything on the subject we didn't touch on you'd like listeners to know about, but I'm kind of curious personally, how do you stay so organized with all of this?

Ashley Moritz: Like I said, I've been doing this for a while. So, I feel like over time you do kind of generate processes. I have a lot of file folder systems in my computer and everything. And we have an awesome team. And again, it's just a lot of it is about communication. And it is staying organized. But I've been, like I said, doing this for a while.

But I think another big thing, we always have goals. We always push ourselves in everything that we do. I think Riverside is an extremely goal-oriented organization. And so, I did check this before our meeting today, and I think we have right around or close to about 150 providers, whether it's between primary care and then specialty. This last year my team recruited 30 providers to the medical group. So, physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants. We did 30. So, I already told the executive team this year my goal is to hit at least 31 for 2026. So, we'll see. We'll see how it goes. But again, it's always a team effort. There's so much collaboration. There's so much that goes into it. But I just really do think that we are so blessed and we are so lucky in this community to have so many amazing physicians. And I'm glad I get to just be a small part of that.

Host: Yeah. I think you're a very important part of that. So, thank you to you and your team for all that you do. And thank you for being here today and giving us your time to give some insight into how human resources and recruitment works. It's really interesting. And thank you to the listeners for tuning in today. Be sure to like and subscribe to Well Within Reach on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. To learn more about career opportunities at Riverside, go to riversidehealthcare.org/careers.