Online open house may be a first in recruiting residents

California's Kaiser Permanente hopes the new venue highlighting its hospitals will deepen its applicant pool.

By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. Oct. 8, 2007.

Fourth-year medical student Teresa Sandoval-Phillips wanted to attend a residency open house at Kaiser Permanente in Santa Clara, Calif., but the three-hour drive each way and a busy schedule made it difficult. Fortunately for her, she was able to log onto a live webcast of the September event, joining 59 other Internet visitors and 80 students who came in person to see what Kaiser's residencies had to offer.

The online and on-campus open houses were a first for Kaiser's northern division, introducing medical and podiatry students to its residencies in Oakland, San Francisco and Santa Clara. The live webcast may have been a first within the graduate medical education community.

"What they're doing at Kaiser seems to be an innovative approach to recruiting," said Charles Clayton, who is vice president for policy at the Assn. of Program Directors in Internal Medicine.

Traditionally, representatives from training programs attend medical student fairs as a way to reach potential applicants, Clayton said. If a hospital or residency has an open house, it is for applicants who were invited to interview, not for the general medical student population.

Bruce Blumberg, MD, Kaiser's graduate medical education director, said Kaiser Permanente Northern California wanted to reach beyond student fairs. He said Kaiser Permanente Southern California successfully has attracted students with an annual on-site open house for years. By copying this idea and adding the webcast, he hoped to attract a national audience.