WAITING ROOMS FULL, DESPITE TWO DOZEN NEW DOCTORS IN CAPE

Nearly two dozen doctors made Cape Girardeau home this year thanks to an aggressive recruitment campaign, but waiting rooms are far from empty.

Recruiting efforts are barely keeping pace. Over the past two years, nearly the same number of doctors have left the area or retired.

Cape Girardeau's two hospitals, the local medical society and doctor groups have been working together to attract doctors to town.

Dan Berry, assistant to the president at St. Francis Medical Center, said this has been a good recruiting year for Cape Girardeau, but work still needs to be done.

"We can't relax," Berry said. "Twenty doctors -- that's an excellent track record, especially for a short period of time. But it's not enough."

Berry said doctors continue to be in demand here and in the rest of the nation.

The need for more family doctors is also evidenced by the large number of patients being treated in hospital emergency rooms for what should be office visits, Berry said.

Dr. Mark Kasten with Family Practice Specialty Center said his group has gone from four to five back to four and now to five doctors.

"We haven't been able to get the sixth person in our group," he said.

With family doctors in demand across the nation, Kasten competes against large groups that can offer 9 to 5 hours and higher salaries.

Two new family doctors joined the group in the past year, including Dr. Kenneth D. Phillips Jr. who started work seven weeks ago.

Already Phillips has had to turn patients away.

"Cape Girardeau needs more doctors," Phillips said between appointments Thursday. "You can't send them all to me."

Phillips is a graduate of the University of Illinois College of Medicine and did his training and residency in Peoria, Ill.

He finished his residency in June.

Phillips said his job choices were overwhelming. A native of McClure, Ill., he decided to practice in Southeast Missouri or Southern Illinois because he wanted to be close to home.

"For family practice, there is a multitude of practice opportunities throughout the country," Phillips said. "Literally I was getting three or four practice offers a day during the last part of my residence."

Lois Kasten with the Cape Girardeau County Medical Society said recruitment efforts for Cape Girardeau must center on what the community can offer in terms of quality of life.

"We have a very nice community with the schools, churches and medical community," she said.

Like Phillips, many of the new doctors who have chosen Cape Girardeau are from Missouri or neighboring states.

"It's like they're coming home," she said.

The two hospitals and the medical society have made a recruitment tape that shows the area, businesses and what Cape Girardeau has to offer.

The tapes are sent to recruiting firms. Local doctor groups work with recruiting firms to bring prospective doctors to town.

On Sept. 25, a reception was held to welcome the new doctors. The roomful of doctors represented more than two years of work, Lois Kasten said.

Recruiting doctors takes a long time. "If you start recruiting medical students, you start recruiting in their third year," she explained.

"If you are recruiting doctors already in practice, they have to give notice where they are and if they have families or children -- it just takes a long time."