Huggins Hospital has been fortunate to have a low medical staff turnover. Being a small, critical access hospital, primary care turnover affects the community in a significant way. In 2008 Huggins was faced with the need to recruit two primary care physicians. They quickly realized the environment was changing when very few candidates were presented who were interested in practicing traditionally. It seemed that two tracks had replaced one: inpatient or outpatient, not both. This prompted hospital administrators to begin discussions with their medical staff on how to preserve primary care in their community for the long term. After a year of discussions and researching different options, they came to the conclusion a Hospitalist program was necessary. Due to immediate outpatient recruitment needs, Huggins decided to get the program started before they would be able to recruit the Hospitalist team. In January of 2009, Huggins Hospital's administration team met with Medicus to discuss a partnership for launching a Hospitalist program. After a few discussions and meetings, Huggins Hospital and Medicus entered into a partnership and the Hospitalist program officially launched on March 23, 2009. "The Medicus physicians worked in conjunction with our local providers to ensure 100% coverage of the…