Facebook Instagram LinkedIn
    • About Us
      • About MEET® Magazines
    List My Business        Advertise
    MEET® Family of Publications
    • Home
    • Subscribe
    • Magazines
      • MEET® Missouri
      • MEET® Kansas
      • MEET® Med
    • Articles By Topic
    • Digital Flipbooks
    • Upcoming Events
    ➤ Find Suppliers
    0 Shopping Cart
    MEET® Family of Publications
    Home»MEET Med Misc.»Medical Meeting News»Rural Doctors’ Training may be in Jeopardy
    Medical Meeting News

    Rural Doctors’ Training may be in Jeopardy

    The MEET® Family of PublicationsBy The MEET® Family of PublicationsApril 22, 2021Updated:May 6, 2021No Comments5 Mins Read
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
    Rural Doctor
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

    By Michael Ollove, Stateline, April 27, 2017

    In nearly two years as a medical resident in Meridian, Mississippi, Dr. John Thames has treated car-wreck victims, people with chest pains,
    and malnourished infants. Patients have arrived with lacerations, with burns, or in a disoriented fog after discontinuing their psychiatric medications.

    Thames, a small-town Mississippi native, said the East Central Mississippi HealthNet Rural Family Medicine Residency Program has been “exactly what I was looking for.”

    Unlike the vast majority of doctors, Thames sought a residency in a rural clinic instead of in a teaching hospital because his ambition is to practice in the sort of place where he grew up, where doctors are scarce. He wants to be able to handle anything that comes through the
    door, from infections to gunshot wounds to a woman who might deliver a baby any second.

    But budget decisions in faraway Washington, D.C., may make it more difficult for Thames and other doctors who want to practice in small towns or underserved cities.

    Under the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education program, which is part of the Affordable Care Act, the federal government dispenses grants to community health centers to train medical residents. The goal of the program is to address the shortage of primary care physicians in rural and poor urban areas.

    But under current law, the federal government will stop funding the program, which serves nearly 750 primary care residents in 27 states and Washington, D.C., at the end of September. Without congressional action, it might be shut down.

    “The program is absolutely doing what it is designed to do, which is to put doctors in underserved areas like ours,” said Darrick Nelson, the director of Hidalgo Medical Services’ teaching health center program, which is training six residents in Lordsburg, New Mexico.

    The teaching health centers have received bipartisan support in the past. But supporters worry that because the program is new, relatively small, and not as well-known as other federally funded doctor training programs, it might fall through the federal budgetary cracks.

    “The greatest threat to the teaching health centers is the dysfunction in Washington,” said Dan Hawkins, a vice president at the National
    Association of Community Health Centers, a research and advocacy group.

    EARLIER CUTS

    Bipartisan support didn’t protect the program from earlier cuts. In 2010, Congress allocated $230 million over five years, or about $46 million a year. But when it approved a two-year extension in 2015, it reduced funding to about $43 million a year. That reduction was enough to cause some of the teaching health centers to train fewer residents. Some have closed.

    Studies have found that most physicians end up practicing close to where they did their residencies. But most teaching hospitals are located in urban centers, far from rural regions with acute doctor shortages. Poor urban neighborhoods also have difficulty attracting physicians.
    The American Association of Teaching Health Centers, a nonprofit advocacy group, said the ACA residency program is having the intended result. According to the organization, 55 percent of teaching health center graduates practice in underserved areas, compared to 26 percent of those who graduate from hospital-based residencies.

    “The program is doing exactly what we wanted it to do,” said John Sealey, director of medical education for Authority Health in Detroit. More than 60 percent of residents who graduated from teaching health centers in Detroit go on to practice in medically underserved areas, many of them in Michigan, he said.

    PROGRESS IN MONTANA
    RiverStone Health, a health care provider in Billings, Montana, was a teaching health center even before the federal program began. RiverStone started training residents in 1998, after partnering with two local hospitals.

    “The state was completely reliant on recruiting from other areas, which was clearly not working as well as it should,” said Roxanne Fahrenwald, a RiverStone vice president. According to the federal government, 51 out of 56 Montana counties have shortages of primary care doctors.”
    With the federal money awarded to it under the ACA, RiverStone has been able to add one medical resident a year to its program, bringing its number of residents to 24. About 70 percent of RiverStone graduates have remained in the state.

    Supporters also argue that teaching health centers expose residents to the types of ailments and health disparities, such as higher rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease, that they are likely to encounter if they practice primary care in underserved areas.

    “Most of the patients are going to be presented with conditions or ailments more common to a primary care practice, whereas those in the hospital will be sicker, with more acute needs,” said Shawn Martin, a vice president at the American Academy of Family Physicians.

    The residents in teaching health centers do spend some of their time training in hospitals. They must complete hospital rotations in surgery, inpatient care, obstetrics and gynecology.

    But health center residents also see what many hospital residents never do. In Washington, D.C., for example, medical residents at Unity Health Care Inc. often work in jails, homeless shelters and HIV/AIDS clinics.
    Those receiving care at such sites would bear the brunt of the impact if federal money for the health center residency program disappears.

    “I’m very nervous,” said Eleni O’Donovan, director of the teaching health center program at Unity. “The program is not sustainable without that funding.”

    This copyrighted story comes from Stateline, the daily news service of the Pew Charitable Trusts.

    Stateline provides daily reporting and analysis on trends in state policy. Since its founding in 1998, Stateline has maintained a commitment to the highest standards of non-partisanship, objectivity, and integrity. Its team of veteran journalists combines original reporting with a roundup of the latest news from sources around the country. Stateline focuses on four topics that are key to state
    policy: fiscal and economic issues, health care, demographics, and the business of government.

    Stateline content is published daily at pewtrusts.org/Stateline.

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
    Previous ArticleAre We Having Fun Yet?
    Next Article Midas Hospitality to Develop First Newly Built Clayton Hotel in 20 Years
    The MEET® Family of Publications
    • Website

    The MEET® Family of Publications produces regional and national publications that keep corporate, association, medical, education, independent, and religious meeting and event planners informed about relevant industry suppliers, news, tech innovations, and resources that impact and influence how and where they plan their upcoming company function(s).

    Related Posts

    SAHARA Las Vegas Announces New Security Executives

    May 11, 2023

    U.S. Hotel TRevPAR the Highest on Record in March

    May 5, 2023

    Experience Legendary Medical Meetings in Springfield, IL

    April 26, 2023

    Comments are closed.

    For 20+ years, The MEETⓇ Family of Publications has produced regional and national magazines that has kept corporate, association, medical, education, independent, and religious meeting and event planners informed about relevant vendors, industry news, tech innovations, and resources that impact and influence how and where they plan their group business.

    Latest Industry Insights
    • Twist and Shout! Two Fundraisers for Two Historic Sappington Houses
    • Survey: Most Americans More Likely to Stay in Hotels on Vacation This Summer vs. Last
    • How AI Tools Can Enhance the Hospitality Industry
    • 85 Percent of Exhibitors Experiencing Cost Issues in Q1 2023
    • Historic Saint Louis presents “Landscapes of Summertime Past”
    Quick Links
    • Home
    • Subscribe
    • Upcoming Events
    Our Magazines
    • MEET® Missouri
    • MEET® Kansas
    • MEET® Med
    More Resources
    • Articles By Topic
    • Digital Flipbooks
    • Online Resource Directory
    © 2023 MEET® Family of Publications. All rights reserved. Website managed and developed by PC40

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.