Samaritan Medical Center will partially fill urologist void in 2012, seeks other specialty physicians

Dr. Alejandro Rodriguez will join the Samaritan Medical Center team later this year, filling one void in the urology department.

Hospital spokeswoman Krista A. Kittle said the departure of Dr. Seetharaman Ashok and Dr. David Butters in 2011 put urologists on Samaritan’s 2012 physician recruitment priority list. Dr. Rodriguez will begin employment later this year, but Samaritan still is searching for another urologist.

“In addition to Dr. Rodriguez, there are three candidates,” Ms. Kittle said.

Since Dr. Rodriguez is robotics trained, Samaritan will embark “into the realm of robotics,” she said.

Not only would the robot be available for urology needs, Ms. Kittle said, it also will be helpful to many other departments in the hospital.

Other recruitment priorities have been on Samaritan’s list for some time, including primary care. Ms. Kittle said the hospital would like to recruit three new primary care providers in 2012.

“Primary care, family medicine and internal medicine is a continuous demand,” she said. “I don’t know if any community has a sufficient supply. Preventative medicine is coming to the forefront, and more insurance companies and hospitals will work with providers to help keep people out of the hospitals.”

Other specialty physicians on the list include an ear, nose and throat specialist; adult psychiatrist; child and adolescent psychiatrist; obstetrician-gynecologist; dermatologist and medical oncologist, which Ms. Kittle said is fairly new on the list.

“(This) is really the year it was put on the priority list and bumped up as far as need,” she said. “Where we see a big need there is our Medicaid population. A lot of people have to travel outside of the area for that care.”

Ms. Kittle said the 2012 recruitment priority list would have had two child and adolescent psychiatrists on it, but Dr. Raymond Sleszynski filled one slot last year when he agreed to work full time at Samaritan.

Physicians that Ms. Kittle said will remain off the list are hospitalists, as Samaritan’s hospitalist program has recently expanded to full capacity from six to eight.

“We’re seeing more of a need for the hospitalist program,” she said. “As people get sick and require hospitalization and don’t have a primary care provider, they’re put under the care of a hospitalist.”

Some specialty physicians remain on the hospital’s recruitment priority list year after year because it can take two years or more to recruit certain physicians, Ms. Kittle said.