YRMC recruitment not just about the hospital
Dr. Madhu Narra, an allergistimmunologist, first came to check out Yuma in July. He drove from El Paso, Texas, with his wife. He remembers opening the door to his car and being shocked by the wave of hot air that rushed over him.
That didn’t scare him away. “I’ll take the hot, warm weather over the cold weather in Kansas City,” he said. (He completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Missouri at Kansas City and then a fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.)
He saw an ad for an allergist position at Yuma Regional Medical Center on a recruitment website. Allergists typically practice in small groups or in solo practice; the fact that it was a hospital caught his eye.
Once in town, Narra recalled, YRMC’s recruiters were “so positive, enthusiastic and really nice” that he couldn’t help but want to come to Yuma.
The hospital didn’t have an allergist, but the recruiters still took him to different providers and clinics in the community, showed him around the hospital and introduced him to community and business members.
Narra liked the “smalltown personal touch,” he said.
He was impressed that the hospital didn’t want him exclusively, they wanted him for the community. The hospital offered him support whether he joined an existing private physician practice, group or the hospital.
“But the whole point is that I wanted to be part of a network,” he said.
He chose to join the hospital.
After a year in Yuma, Narra, his wife and 6-year-old daughter have settled in. Initially, they were nervous about schools, but they discovered they had nothing to worry about. His daughter enrolled in kindergarten in a “pretty good” charter school.
He said the community has lived up to his expectations. The “niceness” wasn’t just for show.
“It’s real. The people are nice, even more nice,” he said.
Dr. Narra’s story demonstrated how YRMC recruits medi-
ABOVE: DR. MADHU NARRA, AN LEFT: