Now to be fair, five new physicians is better than none (even if you were hoping for ten) but it is always fun to read spin language.

It doesn't really matter in the larger sense in that it is all tax money anyway. Either the MDC spends our tax dollars attempting to recruit physicians to the area or the hospital district does. This is similar to negotiations between MISD and the City of Midland concerning the "rent" paid for the use of Grande Communications stadium. While it is very important to each of those entities on whose books the unavoidable losses land, it matters not to the ones who are actually coughing up for the losses.

It is unclear from the article whether these reimbursements to the hospital from the MDC are strictly for the cost of recruiting or if they are also made up of some sort of cash incentive to the potential recruit. If there is incentive money it probably can't be enough to make a difference.

And it would be interesting to have some clarification of this:

In attempts to find four new full-time pediatricians, one had been successfully recruited. But that person left within a short period of time "due to the volume of work expected in her new practice."

Was the volume of work expected too high or too low? If it was too high, I am forced to try and think of any other business where one runs away from a generous supply of customers. If it is too low then why are we recruiting them?