FAIRMONT– Mayo Clinic Health System in Fairmont continues to work to meet the demands of the community it serves. The healthcare facility has recently welcomed some new providers and has launched a new recruitment program to help fill additional needs.

Administrator Amy Long said, “We have recently hired Dr. Matthew Weber. He’s a new podiatrist who has joined our team. He will be with us full time, seeing patients in the clinic as well as doing procedures and surgeries in the O.R.”

She said they’ve also hired three primary care providers. Kiley Reecy, Paige Meyers and Julie Beeler.

“They’re all advanced practice providers in our primary care department,” Long said.

Dr. Marie Morris also spoke about a new psychologist, Dr. Perez Vale, who will soon be coming.

“She’s bilingual and speaks both English and Spanish,” Morris said.

Morris said they’re also still recruiting for two family medicine physicians, though they’ve had some excellent candidates. They also have an open position for an ophthalmologist that they’re working toward filling.

In order to help them fill positions, Mayo Clinic Health System in Fairmont has also launched some new recruitment programs. Morris said over the 20 years she’s been with Mayo, she’s never known of a recruitment program.

“We are super excited and grateful for the Fairmont Community Hospital Foundation for helping us to support some incentive programs to help with our recruitment challenges,” Long said.

Long said, like many other industries, they’re not immune to workforce challenges in Fairmont.

“And it comes at a time where our demand is high,” Morris said.

Long said they have a number of open positions in both a hospital and clinic setting. Open positions are in nursing, social work, environmental services, paramedics, patient care assistance, lab and physical therapy.

“There’s really a broad spectrum of opportunities for employment,” Long said.

There’s two parts to the incentive program and they both run through April 30th. The first one is specific to hospital nursing.

“This program is offering a sign-on bonus of $3,000 and a retention bonus of $2,000 that will be paid after three years. That total package is $5,000,” Long said.

The second program is a community referral bonus. Long said the idea behind it is any community member, which includes Mayo employees, can refer a candidate for any open position and if that candidate is hired, they will receive a bonus of $500.

“It’s exciting. Hopefully it gets our community to help us with recruitment and spread the word about the amazing community we have in the Fairmont area,” Long said.

On the Covid front, Long said the demand for hospital beds has remained high. Morris said they’ve been caring for Covid positive patients and have been at or near capacity again for several weeks now.

“Given the demand for hospital beds and that most hospitals are operating at capacity, we do want to continue to encourage people to get a Covid-19 vaccination and if they’re eligible, to receive a booster,” Long said.

Morris added that it would be wise for people to get an influenza vaccine as well as they’re also seeing positive influenza cases on the rise.

Long shared a couple of reminders for the public, saying that the easiest way to get a Covid-19 test is to go through the patient portal, the online app.

“Patents can go on that app, answer some questions and schedule a Covid test directly through that app. Phone is still an option but there’s a lot of demands on our phone lines right now and that’s causing some wait time,” Long explained.

She also asked that people don’t use emergency room services just for obtaining a Covid test.

“We need to make sure that that department and staff are freed up to care for patients requiring that level of care,” Long said.

While the pandemic continues to affect everyone, especially those in the medical field, Long expressed gratitude for the hard work of their staff.

“We could not be more grateful for our entire staff at Mayo Clinic Health System in Fairmont. It’s certainly been challenging and the demands have been high and they have continued to provide the highest level of care for our community members. We’re also grateful for the continued community support as we continue to battle these challenges,” Long said.