Kaiser gears up for fall hospital opening

Kaiser Permanente is recruiting staff for its north Modesto hospital, a clear sign the nonprofit health care giant is gearing up to open it Oct. 1.

Kaiser has several postings on its jobs Web site for hospital managerial positions in Modesto, such as quality director, emergency department director and assistant nurse managers for intensive care and medical-surgical units.

In addition, it garnered applications from nurses and other front-line personnel at a series of job fairs that started in October.

About 500 to 600 employees, not counting physicians, will be hired to work at the in-patient facility at Kaiser Modesto Medical Center on Dale Road, said Pat McKeldin, human resources business partner for Kaiser's Central Valley area. The hospital is expected to open with 90 to 100 beds and gradually increase its capacity to 220 beds to meet patient demand.

"I can confirm we had a great number of nurses who have applied," McKeldin said. "Once the management folks are hired, they will be able to hire the front-line staff."

She estimated that one-third of the positions will be filled by Kaiser employees working in clinical facilities in Modesto and elsewhere. That will include Kaiser personnel who live in Modesto but work at Bay Area hospitals and want a shorter commute.

Jobs at the Modesto hospital will be offered to Kaiser employees first. Hiring from outside the organization will begin in late May or early June, McKeldin said. The new hires will have one to three weeks of training and orientation before the hospital opens.

Kaiser has done a fair amount of recruiting in Modesto. Almost half the 420 people who attended one recruitment fair were nurses, McKeldin said.

When the hospital went through the city hearing process three years ago, officials from competing health care organizations said the hospital would intensify demand for medical personnel and drive up labor costs in the local market.

Other hospitals not concerned

As Kaiser stepped up its recruiting, other health care providers in Modesto downplayed the issue this week.

Carin Sarkis, spokeswoman for Doctors Medical Center, said the hospital has no plans for a recruitment push just because Kaiser is hiring. Right now, DMC has only about 20 positions available for hospital workers, she said.

Representatives of Memorial Medical Center and the associated Sutter Gould Medical Foundation also didn't sound concerned.

"Our turnover rate at Sutter Gould has remained stable over the years, regardless of market activity," said Craig Baize, spokesman for Sutter Gould. "Our employee satisfaction surveys always show they are satisfied working here."

The Kaiser hospital will need a variety of staff, including surgeons, registered nurses, nursing assistants, lab technicians, dietitians and clerical staff. Some of those people are certain to migrate from local Kaiser clinics, competing hospitals, physician offices and health clinics in the area.

Michael Sullivan, executive director of Golden Valley Health Centers, said he lost a nursing director to the Kaiser clinic system last year.

"Kaiser can up the ante in terms of what they can pay," he said. "It is always tough to lose someone you have invested a lot of funding and training in. ... It is a big system and it is not going to affect Golden Valley alone."

McKeldin said Kaiser attracts people with top pay and benefits, and the health system stayed ahead of the game in implementing nurse-to-patient ratios. With many hospitals in California operating in the red, health workers are looking for job security, she said.

"We haven't had layoffs," she said. "We are a large organization that is stable, and these days that is not easy to find."

Kaiser did not release the number of applications it has received for Kaiser Modesto Medical Center. Its pay for registered nurses averages $40 an hour.

Some positions are hard to fill, including emergency room nurses, pharmacists, clinical educators and clinical lab scientists, McKeldin said. Another need is for physicians.

Dr. Moses Elam, physician in chief for the Permanente Medical Group in the Central Valley, said many of the 120 or so physicians he's recruited in the past 2½ years will see patients at the hospital.

He still needs to sign agreements with 23 doctors, including anesthesiologists and radiologists.

It's a challenge recruiting for the high-paying specialty fields such as orthopedics, when Kaiser Modesto is competing with medical groups in the Bay Area. Elam pitches the lower cost of housing in the Modesto area, recreation in the delta and the Sierra, and the reasonable drive to cultural activities in the Bay Area.

Some of the doctors have just completed residency training, but Elam also has recruited veteran physicians who are tired of hassling with insurance companies and other aspects of the business. It's not so complex to work for Kaiser, an integrated insurance and medical system, he said.

"Because of the business aspects of running a practice and the lower reimbursements, it is not that easy to be in private practice," Elam said. "I think it is getting too hard for some of them."

People can review jobs at Kaiser Permanente at www.jobs.kp.org. To apply for positions at the Kaiser Modesto hospital, file an electronic application or bring a résumé and cover letter discussing the desired position to Human Resources at Kaiser Modesto Medical Center, 4601 Dale Road, third floor.

Bee staff writer Ken Carlson can be reached at kcarlson@modbee.com or 578-2321.

This story was originally published April 17, 2008 at 2:56 AM with the headline "Kaiser gears up for fall hospital opening."