Testimonials
Testimonials – From the Clients Perspective:
“We are going to have a great Internal Medicine program and you can say Elaine Auerbach helped get it off the ground. Elaine is excellent at sourcing and facilitating candidates for interview. She collaborates and works with the client towards their defined goals and objectives. She delivers on driving effective communication between the client and candidate. Once a candidate is chosen, she is efficient and timely in closing the deal.”
Dr. Jeffery Hudson-Covolo, Vice President for Patient Care Services & Chief Nurse Executive
Chief Academic Officer/GME DIO
Sierra View Medical Center
“We retained Kaye Bassman, Inc. out of Dallas, and specifically, Elaine Auerbach of their firm, beginning September 1st. We went with them because I’ve been talking with Elaine off and on over the years and knew she had a deep understanding of academic medicine in general and specifically academic Family Medicine.
Within six weeks she sourced and referred three highly credible candidates. We’ve done phone interviews with all three (and a couple more who later dropped out), have had one candidate visit at both MCW and Green Bay, and have two more in person interviews scheduled.
This position has been posted off-and-on for two years and that we spent a considerable amount with another top tier firm whom MCW uses a lot, and never got more than a couple phone call interviews. I have always been highly skeptical about retained firms, but this engagement is the classic example of a successful search. If you’re looking at other retained searches I would recommend you take a look at these folks as well.
With Elaine’s dedicated assistance, we have been able to identify appropriate candidates that had not previously been identified. She is easy to work with and is fully engaged in our recruitment process. I would most certainly retain her services in the future for faculty recruitment and recommend her with highest regard to colleagues.”
Ken Mace, Administrator, Department of Family & Community Medicine
Medical College of Wisconsin
“We initially selected Elaine Auerbach and her firm, Kaye Bassman International for their inside knowledge and unique understanding of the marketplace in academic medicine. At the onset, Ms. Auerbach demonstrated flexibility in customizing the recruitment process, relationship and terms to meet our specific requirements and expectations. Although this was a complex and challenging search, Ms. Auerbach was successful in placing a top quality candidate that exceeded our expectations! Never wavering in level of commitment, she gained the respect of senior leadership of the organization. We could not be more pleased with the new incumbent to fill this strategic role of Program Director, Family Medicine Residency.”
Blythe Ann Rinaldi, Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer
Mayo Clinic Health System
“Elaine Auerbach at Kaye/Bassman was hired to assist with a challenging search for a Medical Director and did a great job. It is always difficult when there is an internal candidate. She met with leadership, obtained the knowledge she needed and did a great job in marketing the position. Her candidate screening and candidate presentation was awesome as well. Our organization did not typically use external search firms and Elaine and Kaye/Bassman satisfied the leadership here.”
Linda Muyskens, Former, Executive Recruiter
University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston
“The University of Texas – Dell Medical School embarked on an aggressive timeline to secure the Department Chair for Obstetrics and Gynecology. We assessed several firms and selected Kaye/Bassman International Corporation based on their background and experience in academics. KBIC did a good job interviewing key stakeholders throughout the institution, community, and hospital so that a true portrayal of the new medical school could be presented to potential candidates. They were able to accommodate our expedited 120 day timeframe while still conducting a nationwide search to ensure that the selected candidate met our specific needs. Eric ensured that each interview was well coordinated and that the confidentiality of each candidate was held in the highest regard. Throughout the process, Eric kept the lines of communication open with each candidate as well as myself and helped facilitate the process to meet our aggressive selection deadline.
Eric Dickerson, Elaine Auerbach and the rest of the Kaye/Bassman team provided exceptional service and I am very pleased by the outcome of the search. I would highly recommend Kaye/Bassman International Corporation for any critical and/or time sensitive search you may have.”
Sue Cox, MD, Executive Vice Dean of Academics, Chair for the Department of Medical Education
Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin
“I knew that filling our Medical Director position was going to be a challenge and recognized from our initial conversation that Elaine and Eric understood our needs, they saw our vision and there was a match with our styles. Fast forward, without a doubt I made a great decision to go with Kaye/Bassman. We worked extremely well together. They met and exceeded all my expectations and I am grateful for their support.
Elaine did a lot of behind the scenes work in contacting people, had an extensive visit to our campus and I developed a trust. I never worried about lack of progress or types of candidates she was bringing in, which I appreciated. Elaine exceeded my expectations as she zoomed-in on the critical aspects of what we really needed. Reference checking was great because I trusted her experience and through our relationship I knew it would be a job well done.”
Jamie Shutter, Director, University Health Services
University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
“I had the pleasure of working with Elaine during the time I was Director for the Department of Surgery at the University of Florida. Elaine worked diligently to provide an extensive quality list of candidates for faculty positions that we knew would be difficult recruits. During the process Elaine kept in contact frequently to gauge interest in candidates, and to inquire about any questions or concerns that my departmental hiring committee might have. She was always a delight to speak with, and made herself available to my schedule – frequently catching up in the evening hours. She was sensitive to both our timeline and finances. Elaine is a professional, and I would not hesitate to recommend her services.”
Barbara McNamee, Vice Chair of Administration
University of Miami, Miami, Florida
“Recruiting great faculty is integral to having a successful academic Department of Surgery. Certain surgical subspecialties are in limited supply and are difficult to recruit because of various supply and demand issues. With that in mind we made an arrangement to work with Elaine Auerbach from Kaye/Bassman Associates to assist us in hiring additional faculty with Trauma/Critical Care and Burn Surgery expertise for Upstate University Hospital. Elaine spent a significant amount of time learning about our recruitment needs and helped us to recruit the surgical expertise we needed to develop a critical mass of faculty in this area. Within a few weeks she identified a significant number of potential faculty candidates. We worked with her to screen potential candidates and bring forth only best quality individuals for the position(s) we needed to fill. In summary, Elaine’s ability to identify and recruit helped us to meet critical work force issues we were facing in a timely fashion.”
Robert N. Cooney, MD, FACS, FCCM, Professor & Chairman
Department of Surgery, State University of New York at Upstate Medical Center
Syracuse, New York
“Elaine recruited me to my position at Creighton/Alegent. She was knowledgeable about the position as well as the health system in which I would be working. Her insights into the health system were accurate and insightful, so I had no surprises when I began the position. She did an outstanding job.”
Keith Clancy, Division Chief, Trauma, Surgical Critical Care, Acute Care Surgery
University Hospitals of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio
“I would say I was very pleased with [Kaye/Bassman Academic Medicine]. I wanted to approach the task as a close relationship, and by setting up weekly sessions throughout the process to see where we all stood helped keep the search top of mind for both parties, which ensured getting the right person for the position. Some of the most beneficial things included the pre-work that the team did by getting a good sense of the important elements of who we were looking for, not just credentials and experience, but also personal strengths, motivations, and opportunities for improvement. The profiles you created based off these conversations were some of the most valuable tools much more tailored for this search. This process allowed us the opportunity to get the right “person on the bus” for this position and avoided presenting candidates to me that were not worth my time reviewing.”
Bryan Alsip, Executive Vice President, CMO
University Health System
“It gives me great pleasure to offer a letter of recommendation for Mr. Eric Dickerson. I have known Eric for more than 3 years now. In my position as Department Chair of Surgery at the Nemours Children’s Clinic, I learned about Eric through his successful recruitment of two pediatric neurosurgeons at the local Children’s hospital. As we were unsuccessful with a former recruiting firm, we reached out to Mr. Dickerson to see if he can assist in a successful recruitment of several key surgical areas in our organization. I was immediately impressed with Mr. Dickerson in his organized approach and ambitious attitude in doing what was necessary to get the job done. We have been very pleased with Eric and he has been successful in filling many of our positions. We continue to work with him currently on additional faculty needs. “
Gary D. Josephson, MD, MBA, FACS, FAAP, FACPE, Chairman; Department of Surgery
Nemours Children’s Clinic, Associate Professor
Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Affiliate Professor
University of South Florida College of Medicine
“I’m so happy we were able to find her [Yolanda Gomez, candidate placed as Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education with UT Health]– and am grateful to you guys!”
Lois Bready, MD, Vice Dean for Graduate Medical Education
UT Health Science Center San Antonio
Testimonials – From the Candidates Perspective:
“Elaine has been an absolute pleasure to work with. I have worked with many recruiters to find my first job out of residency, and I felt that – above most others – Elaine really took the time to listen to my needs, my situation and was able to find an exciting opportunity to launch my career! She is amazing.”
Sumedh D. Mankar, D.O., Family and Preventive Medicine, Loma Linda University
“Elaine was head and shoulders above the other recruiters I worked with this interview season in several important ways. She is intelligent, curious, thorough, insightful, and knowledgeable. In some shape or form, I interacted with twelve other recruitment specialists over the course of three months. Many of them seem to have nothing more than a bare-bones job description to go by, and in some cases, the job description is far from complete. They sound as if they’re reciting sound-bytes from a website or a brochure. They know nothing about the clinical operations of the program in question, the clinical needs and expectations associated with the position, the infrastructure for academic pursuits (if any), or even basic metrics like the number of IV tPA cases per year or door-to-needle time. Elaine is the only one who really knew the people and the program she was recruiting for. She had personally met the leadership and she had seen the facility with her own eyes. I would have never considered this program or this city before talking with her on the phone. I clearly recall our first phone contact. She was genuinely interested in getting to know me–my aspirations, career goals, research interests, and personal and professional history. She asked probing questions that compelled me to articulate my rationale for the career decisions I had made so far. She made incredibly astute inferences about the way I think based on dry biographical data. I found her to be a gifted observer, a good listener, and a real student of human psychology. At the end of that phone conversation, there was no question I had to see the program for myself because I had just spoken with a highly intelligent and thoughtful person who said this was a good opportunity. In many ways, I feel like I had my first interview with Elaine. I felt prepared for many of her questions, but I remember struggling with a few that cut to the core of my convictions and assumptions. It was an invaluable exercise. It made me a better and more confident interviewee. That initial experience shaped my expectations for the rest of the interview trail, but I’m afraid everybody else fell woefully short.”
Bogachan Sahin, M.D., Ph.D., Cerebrovascular Fellow
Department of Neurology, John Hopkins University School of Medicine
Currently Faculty at the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York
“Elaine’s expertise is grounded in her thorough empirical and practical knowledge of the comprehensive health care system. She is a very competent consultant. She listens to the “what” the client wants as well as the “why”. She then carefully formulates her solutions that help them solve problems. As a former healthcare executive, she is very aware of the importance of hiring decisions, and works with the client as a partner to make the right decision.”
Carole Campbell, Retired Vice President
Stanton Chase International, Dallas, Texas
Carole worked directly with Elaine at Stanton Chase International
“I have had the pleasure of knowing Elaine for twenty plus years as a friend, colleague and client. Having engaged Elaine on multiple occasions I can attest that she is extremely professional. Elaine strives for long-term success for both the client and candidate by matching the candidate’s skill-set and personality with the culture of the company. When the need arises I will engage Elaine again because she is a pleasure to work with and possesses a demonstrated track record of success.”
Anthony LaMacchia, Chief Executive Officer
Comprehensive Blood & Cancer Center, Bakersfield, California