IPC's head of physician staffing adds to rolls, market.

TIMOTHY Lary's career in physician recruitment started the hard way, making cold calls for a headhunter. "You get told 'no' 1,000 times, you get one yes, and you're excited," he said.

Fifteen years after that humble start, the 39-year-old Houston native was appointed by IPC--The Hospitalist Co. to the newly created position of vice president of physician staffing.

Based in North Hollywood, IPC employs nearly 300 "hospitalist" physicians nationwide. Typically, emergency room or primary care physicians refer their patients to hospitalists to coordinate tests, treatments and services. Hospitalists act as "the point person for patients when they come in the hospital," Lary said.

In his new job, Lary heads a six-person team charged with growing IPC's business to more than 1,000 physicians nationwide. He sees the highest possibility for growth in the new Midwest and East Coast markets.

"The hospitalist industry is very new. It's not a defined specialty," Lary said.

After receiving a bachelor's degree in economics from Harding University in 1989, Lary worked for a short time as a headhunter in the telecom industry. In 1991, he returned to Texas to do graduate work in business at the University of Houston and help care for his father, who was suffering from cancer.

His father's death in 1993 affected him deeply. "It changes you, especially when you're young," he said. "I gravitated back toward health care at that point."

For the last six years, Lary was the associate director of physician recruitment at US Oncology Inc., a Houston-based company that manages private oncology practices.