Memorial Hospital partnering to expand physician training and retention in Southwest Indiana
Jasper – Memorial Hospital and three area hospitals, along with Indiana University School of Medicine-Evansville, have combined to expand medical school training in Southwest Indiana.
Memorial Hospital joined IU School of Medicine-Evansville, St. Mary’s Medical Center, Deaconess Health System and the Owensboro Medical Health System to commission a feasibility study to expand IU School of Medicine-Evansville from a two-year medical school to a four-year school. Tripp Umbach conducted the study and met with officials last Tuesday to reveal the findings of the first phase of their study.
Paul Umbach, of Tripp Umbach, and Dr. Steven Becker, director of the IU School of Medicine-Evansville, explained phase I of the commissioned study supported the development of a $35 million medical training facility in Evansville. The expansion will begin to supply third and fourth year medical students to local hospitals for additional training. In addition, the expansion to a four-year medical school will create a pipeline beginning in middle schools and high schools in the region. The goal being more students will stay in the area after they complete their training, ensuring a higher percentage of primary care physicians and other providers remain here.
Along with the medical school expansion, Memorial Hospital is seeking to expand their residency program.
Memorial Hospital became involved with IU-Evansville about two years ago when Doctor Terry Brown met with Dr. Becker to bring Memorial Hospital to the table as a hospital for the school’s first and second year students. “We met with first year medical students last spring (2012) at this facility (the Memorial Hospital Lodge) and took them on a tour of the VUJC simulation lab and came back to the hospital,” Brown explained. “They met with eight physicians on a Saturday afternoon to talk about residency at Jasper.”
Brown stated one of the students asked, why he should consider coming to Jasper as opposed to going to Indianapolis to do his third year training. “Scott Beckman stood up and told him, ‘Here’s why, you are the third year medical student on the GYN rotation at Indianapolis, you are going to stand in the corner next to the senior medical student who is on the rotation and watch the intern, the resident and the staff guy do an operation and you might not be able to see anything. If you come to Jasper it will be you and me,'” Brown related. “He (the student) just sat down, he didn’t have anything else to say.”
The benefit works both ways, when these student’s become residents, they fill a need in the hospital. “When new patients come into a hospital, they now see a hospitalist before being released and then going to a family doctor,” Dr. Brown explained. “We have three hospitalists that work their butt’s off and they do a great job. That burden on our hospitalists is huge. Having residents here will help ease some of that burden and will provide great training for the residents themselves.”
According to Memorial Hospital President and CEO Ray Snowden, the hospital’s single biggest challenge at this point in time is recruiting physicians. “When you have doctors in California and they are looking at this little dot on the map, unless they have been here or are from here, there are difficulties in getting them here,” he explained. “If folks are from this area or if they have some experience with us, it is much easier to get them here. If we are participating in a residency program and they (residents) have some experience with us and understand what we are about and are much more familiar with our area, it’s much, much easier to be able to recruit those vital assets to this community.”
[quote] Anytime you are part of medical education —education period— it helps raise you up to a higher level.” Ray Snowden, CEO and President of Memorial Hospital[/quote] By joining this consortium, Memorial Hospital is gaining the benefit much larger hospitals already enjoy in their recruitment efforts. “It exciting to be able to participate, given our size, with a larger consortium of hospitals and schools,” Snowden said. “Plus you are expanding access to medical education. There is an ongoing shortage of physicians and it will be this way going forward. Anytime you are part of medical education —education period— it helps raise you up to a higher level. We are really excited to be able to work with IU School of Medicine, St. Mary’s, Deaconess and Owensboro.”
Besides the impact in the area’s hospitals as more doctors stay in the area to practice medicine, the economic impact in regards to healthcare savings is significant. According to Tripp Umbach’s report, each graduate who provides primary care service in under-served areas within the region will create $3.6 million in healthcare savings per year.
In addition, the expansion of the school is expected to create 600 jobs by 2015 with a total economic impact of $100 million in the region and those numbers are expected to double by 2020.
Phase II of the study is expected to begin in March and will be completed by August. Three additional organizations have joined the consortium in funding the second phase of the study. The University of Southern Indiana, University of Evansville, and Ivy Tech Southwest have joined IU-Evansville, Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center, Deaconess Health System, St. Mary’s Health and Owensboro Medical Health System.
