A creative, flexible recruitment strategy solved a three-year OB/GYN search for a rural Montana hospital in just 6 months.
Glendive, Montana, has a reputation for two things: its bounty of dinosaur fossils and being a difficult place to recruit physicians. When Search Consultant Tatum Geller was assigned to find an OB/GYN for the town’s 25-bed critical access hospital, the search seemed as if it, too, would become extinct.
The search had been open for three years when Tatum joined it. Attracting candidates to Montana, with its glorious mountains, beautiful national parks, and endless recreational opportunities would be easy, especially for early-career physicians. However, Glendive is more like neighboring North Dakota than it is to Bozeman, where the landscape looks more like a Roadrunner cartoon than an episode of Yellowstone. With a population of around 5,000 residents, there was a low volume of deliveries and no high-tech equipment that most physicians expect to care for expectant mothers in the ranching community.
“Most candidates are looking for higher volumes, robotics, and access to the tools that they were trained on,” Tatum explains. “This was a totally different kind of position, so you need to find the right person, at the right time in their life and career.”
Breathing New Life Into an Exhausted Search
The hospital’s VP of Operations had considered just about every avenue to deliver on this crucial need for the community: an FMOB or even a Midwife — anything to save patients from making a three-hour drive through remote areas for care. When Tatum suggested they try a new approach, he was eager to hear her idea.
After hearing from candidates that they might be interested in the position on a part-time basis, she got an inspiration. What if Glendive structured the role around three providers, each working 10 shifts per month?
The VP was immediately receptive. He and Tatum had been in close communication, and he was aware of how challenging the search had become. He trusted her assessment of the market and agreed that the right solution required thinking differently about physician recruitment in their frontier community.
Right Time, Right Place, Right Doctor
With her revised assignment in hand, Tatum launched a targeted search. She began by leveraging her license to recruit on Doximity, knowing over 80% of U.S. doctors are verified members of the platform. There, Tatum found Dr. J, an early-career OB/GYN who embodied exactly what Glendive needed. She had been practicing since 2022 and was relocating from Nebraska to Billings with her young family.
When Tatum reached out and spoke with Dr. J, it was uncanny how well-matched she was for the position. She was passionate about serving rural communities lacking access to women’s health services, and her values aligned perfectly with those of the patients she would care for. She’d worked in high-volume settings before and was actively seeking a better work-life balance so she could be present for her family and raise her child. The 10-shifts-per-month model offered exactly what she was looking for: a chance to do meaningful work while dividing her time between Billings, where her husband was also a physician, and Glendive, three hours east.
The only sticking point was that she needed malpractice coverage, which was an unusual request. However, when Tatum presented her profile to the client, it was clear that this was the candidate they had been waiting for. He was willing to cover her insurance and more. The competitive package included the benefits and compensation of a full-time physician, as well as relocation assistance, student loan repayment, and free housing in Glendive.
The onsite visit further confirmed to both the hospital and Dr. J that the long search was finally over. Tatum’s creative problem-solving and the VP of Operations’ willingness to trust her recommendations resulted in an offer after only six months of recasting the role.
“Dr. J was amazed by how well-respected and well-run the hospital was and immediately established a warm rapport with the VP of Operations and the CEO, both of whom are salt-of-the-earth kind of people,” Tatum described their in-person meeting. “They gave her a really great experience, and she knew she was going to fit in well with the team.”
A Relationship Built on Trust, Forged Over Time
Glendive now has OB/GYN coverage due to the relationship and trust the VP of Operations has with Tatum. While Tatum was new to the job and the client, he had a longstanding relationship with Jackson Physician Search and understood the value of a consultative approach with his recruitment partners.
When asked how she prevailed despite the search’s challenges, Tatum emphasized the importance of relationships.
“This search reminds me how important it is to have a close and collaborative partnership with your client,” reflects Tatum. “The fact that they were open to my ideas and flexible with the approach was key to my success in finding them an ideal candidate. This was a very challenging search, and I was new to the job, yet the client trusted and supported me, even on the days when I didn’t have great news to share. It kept me motivated to bring new life into the search and deliver them exactly the OB/GYN they hoped for.”
If your organization needs help identifying candidates or streamlining your physician recruitment process, a Jackson Physician Search Recruiter would love to help. Contact us today.
