Iowa docs want competition

OTTUMWA, Iowa -- Doctors in Iowa say they’re working to bring more physicians to the state.

“The hard part is to get people to look,” said Dr. Peter Reiter of Ottumwa. “Especially in rural areas, we needed help with recruitment.”

Reiter and other doctors have said Iowa in general has an alarming shortage of physicians.

“I’m a child psychologist, and I believe I’m the only one providing child services for south-central Iowa,” said Dr. Joyce Vista-Wayne, who, like Reiter, is an officer in the Iowa Medical Society.

In many businesses, being the only game in town can be an economic blessing.

But Vista-Wayne said practicing medicine isn’t about how many customers you can turn over per day. Some of the work takes time, limiting the number of patients each doctor can help.

“The reality is, in south-central Iowa, the need is so great,” she said. “It really goes beyond taking care of the fiscal interests of the physicians; it goes to providing care quality care.”

Last week, the Iowa Medical Society launched a campaign called “Practice Worth Living,” which targets doctors nationally.

“This (initiative) is in response to a survey they sent out to Iowa physicians,” Vista-Wayne said.

In the past, issues such as reimbursement rates for services provided or reforms for malpractice litigation were IMS doctors’ major worries.

“For the first time, the number-one concern (of Iowa doctors) was recruitment and retention,” Vista-Wayne said.

State Sen. Paul McKinley, R-Chariton, has served on a board recruiting doctors to Iowa.

“Iowa has many areas considered shortage areas. It is difficult but not impossible to attract physicians to rural Iowa,” he said. “It can be done. I think southern Iowa has wonderful assets to sell.”

He said efforts like that by the medical society are imperative.

“I truly believe Iowa is the hidden gem (of this) country,” said McKinley. “I think we have more potential, but we’ve got to do it right.”

Reiter and Vista-Wayne are both quoted in the new campaign, which they say is among the first of its kind in the country.

“Doctors have always recruited new doctors,” said Reiter, who was recruited by another doctor 35 years ago.

The new recruitment DVD, brochure and online jobs database specifically targets doctors, telling them why they should consider Iowa.

“My husband (also an M.D.) had been practicing in California, and he wasn’t happy,” Vista-Wayne said.

Big business seemed to be taking over the world of health care, telling patients and doctors what treatment was best.

Vista-Wayne said she wanted a safe community, a good place to raise a family and a place where they could have a rewarding career.

“Iowa is really a place wherein you’re able to practice the way we were trained to practice,” she said. “The quality of care in Iowa is excellent.”

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