Submitted:  The Health Professionals Attraction and Retention Committee (HPA&R)

Health Professionals Attraction & Retention Committee shares physician recruitment and onboarding process

Tuesday, June 3, 2025

The Health Professionals Attraction and Retention Committee (HPA&R) is sharing the process involved in bringing new doctors to our community. We are pleased to share that in the first six months since community stakeholders joined to revitalize efforts for Doctor Recruitment, six physicians have chosen to start their practices in Stettler, with two currently practicing.

We are excited and encouraged by these results but also understand that some public frustration remains as these results aren’t immediately seen by the public. The process from when a doctor commits to practicing here to when they are actually seeing patients can be lengthy and governed by policies out of our control. Below is an explanation of the steps that take place between the doctor accepting the job inStettler and the doctor seeing patients in Stettler.

• Doctor accepts job:  Posted by AHS, standard hiring process

• Doctor completes out of town assessment. 3 – 6 months process

• Doctor moves to Stettler: HPA&R and local realtors help make this process go smoothly  

• Doctor completes local assessment:  3 month process, with limited patients

Through this transition process we ask for your continued kindness and courtesy to all clinic staff. Physicians coming to our community are being thoughtfully placed in each clinic to maximize available space, with alternating placements between the clinics to ensure both can enhance capacity equally.

New doctors in Stettler will gradually build up to a full patient panel, meaning a limited number of new patient appointments are made available at first and once those are filled, the books are temporarily closed to allow the doctor time to meet and assess those patients. As the doctor becomes more established and comfortable with the initial patient load, the books will reopen to allow additional patients to be booked in. Be assured, doctors and clinics carefully manage this process to ensure effective, high-quality care and timely appointments.