"Dr. Kildare" stereotype undermines physician recruitment.

A though healthcare is undergoing a profound transformation, certain attitudes related to it seem set in stone. One is the lingering belief of some hospital and health network administrators that the only acceptable physician candidates are male, U.S. trained, under 45 , blond haired, and blue eyed. Client insistence on exclusionary candidate parameters is a challenge physician recruiters deal with daily. Of course, it is illegal for prospective employers to exclude job candidates because of their age, gender, race, or ethnicity. But clients find ways to skirt the law, perhaps rejecting one candidate because he has received his medical training in a foreign country, rejecting another because she is not certified for specialized practices. The point is that exclusionary parameters are set. And problematic parameters may be the most common reason why many physician search efforts are doomed to failure.