Greetings! We are writing to let you know that we are currently recruiting physicians to the Marathon Family Health Team. As always, we are also very interested in locums and will try to make a specific locum arrangement work for you.
We are an established Family Health Team which has had a stable physician base for 14 years. In 2009 we received the Rural Family Practice of the Year Award from the Ontario
College of Family Physicians.
Over the past several months, three of our physicians moved from Marathon. As such, we have room for 2-3 recruits to join the remaining 5 physicians who have been in practice for at least 10 years. Our set-up is excellent. We are an interprofessional clinic (social worker, dietician, RPNs, RNs, NP, physician assistant and epidemiologist) serving a town of 4000, as well as Pic River and Pic Mobert First Nations. We have a 9 bed acute care hospital, which also has a 12 bed chronic care wing. We also provide low risk obstetrical care. The ER has approximately 10-15 patient visits per 24hr shift; for ER back up there is always someone available for second on-call. We provide support and mentoring for those wanting to try out rural obstetrics and/or ER. We also have visiting surgeons doing consults and scopes, a visiting ophthalmologist doing consults and cataract surgery, and a shared care mental health model working with a psychiatrist, via telehealth.
Our health team clinic building is newly renovated with the doctors sharing a big open-style office, offering plenty of opportunities for corridor consults. There is no buy-in. We have Clinicare/Optimed as our EMR. We host medical students, residents, RN, NP and PA students and there are other teaching opportunities through NOSM. A number of our local physicians with an interest in research have published several papers in the last decade. We have had the time to be innovative and embrace the opportunities to explore current trends in primary care. To this end we were a first wave FHT, participated in a phase 3 pilot of the “Quality in Family Practice” project, have participated in “QiiP”( Quality Improvement and Innovation Partnership), and are currently piloting the role of the physician assistant in Family Health Teams.
We are currently on an RNPGA contract with a designation of 5 physicians. In the past, we have found that 9 physicians, working their preferred number of hours, and sharing the workload is optimal. Our salaries have ranged from $250,000 to $400,000 depending on desired workload. We have followed a consensus based decision making model and a very fair financial remuneration model. These are outlined further in the paper http://www.cfpc.ca/cfp/2005/sep/vol51-sep-cme-1.asp. A $117,000 recruitment incentive is currently being offered through MOHLTC and it is offered over 4 years.
There are two comfortably furnished houses available rent free through the Town of Marathon for two years to new physicians. Each house has wireless internet and cable T.V., and is a short, lovely walk away from Lake Superior. If we recruit more than 2 physicians to the community we will happily provide additional equivalent housing.
We also offer a 2 year complimentary family recreation incentive. This includes access to our Golf Course and Driving Range, Indoor Pool with Sauna and Therapeutic Pool, Aqua fitness, Public Skating, and Drop In Hockey.
We have great mountain bike trails, tennis and golf, and cross-country skiing in winter. There is ultimate Frisbee in the spring and summer, and outdoor volleyball. There is an OAT sanctioned Triathlon in July. Sea kayaking is fabulous on the big lake, and there are boats to lend. Both the big lake and the inland fishing are plentiful. Neys Provincial Park is 20 minutes to the west of Marathon with its famous 1-km sand beach; this park is great for young families and is close enough that you can join your family camping there once you’re done in clinic. Pukaskwa National Park is 20 min in the other direction, and has amazing hiking trails and more gorgeous beaches.
If you are interested in talking with us further, please call or e-mail. We would also be happy to
facilitate a locum or site visit if you are interested.
Dr. Nancy Fitch- nfitch@mfht.org or
Brett Redden- Physician Recruiter bredden@mfht.org
Marathon Family Health Team
2009 Rural Family Practice of the Year
Marathon, Ontario
www.mfht.org
807-229-3243
