Skip to main content
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Current News
    • Providers
    • Insurance
    • Government
    • Finance
    • Technology
    • Safety & Quality
    • Digital Health
    • Transformation
    • ESG
    • People
    • Regional News
    • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Patients
    • Operations
    • Care Delivery
    • Payment
    • Midwest
    • Northeast
    • South
    • West
  • Blogs
    • AI
    • Deals
    • Layoff Tracker
    • HIMSS 2023
  • Opinion
    • Breaking Bias
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • From the Editor
  • Events & Awards
    • Awards
    • Conferences
    • Galas
    • Virtual Briefings
    • Webinars
    • Nominate/Eligibility
    • 100 Most Influential People
    • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
    • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
    • Excellence in Governance
    • Health Care Hall of Fame
    • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
    • Top 25 Emerging Leaders
    • Top Innovators
    • Diversity in Healthcare
      • - Luminaries
      • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
      • - Leaders to Watch
    • Women in Healthcare
      • - Luminaries
      • - Top 25 Women Leaders
      • - Women to Watch
    • Digital Health Transformation Summit
    • ESG: The Implementation Imperative Summit
    • Leadership Symposium
    • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
    • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
    • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
    • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
    • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
    • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
    • - Hospital of the Future
    • - Value Based Care
    • - Hospital at Home
    • - Workplace of the Future
    • - AI and Digital Health
    • - Future of Staffing
    • - Hospital of the Future (Fall)
  • Multimedia
    • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
    • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
    • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
    • Sponsored Video Series - Checking In with Dan Peres
  • Data & Insights
    • Data & Insights Home
    • Hospital Financials
    • Staffing & Compensation
    • Quality & Safety
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Data Archive
    • Resource Guide: By the Numbers
    • Surveys
    • Data Points
  • Newsletters
  • MORE+
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Media Kit
    • Jobs
    • People on the Move
    • Reprints & Licensing
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. Physicians
May 08, 2013 12:00 AM

Rural doc retention also needs attention

Beth Kutscher
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print
    Related Content

    Part one: The wages of recruiting rural docs

    Part two: When money isn't enough to lure rural docs

    ("Rural doc retention also needs attention" is the final installment in a three-part series on recruiting and retaining physicians for underserved communities.)

    Physician retention has been just as much an issue as getting physicians to make an initial commitment to rural life.

    Nationally, physicians stay in their first jobs for about only three years. The challenge in rural areas has been to find doctors who are willing to stay for five or more years since initial recruitment can so difficult.

    “We can certainly help with recruiting, but we're really interested in helping those who we want to keep too,” says Joyce Grayson, director of Rural Health Education and Services at the University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, which has developed innovative programs for recruiting and retaining physicians who want to serve in rural areas.

    Kansas programs such as student-loan forgiveness have had an 80% retention rate during the past 23 years, Grayson says. The state also funds a program that provides temporary clinician coverage to underserved areas so that solo providers can have time off.

    “You absolutely can have work-life balance out in the rural areas,” she says. “There has been a big change over the last few years.”

    In Oregon, state senators have introduced a bill that would recreate a primary-care loan repayment program and establish a loan repayment fund—something the state discontinued in 2009. It would build upon Oregon's other incentive programs, such as its participation in the federally administered state loan-repayment program, a match-grant program intended for primary-care providers willing to spend at least two years practicing in an underserved area.

    On the national level, two bills introduced this year in the Senate aim to help retain international medical graduates willing to serve in rural areas.

    The Conrad State 30 and Physician Access Act, introduced in March by Sens. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), eliminates the sunset on the 1994 program of the same name that allows states to waive visa requirements for rural physicians.

    And last month's Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act has a number of provisions that could directly or indirectly boost physician immigration, such as doing away with per-country limits on green card holders and increasing the number of physician immigrants who stay after completing training here.

    Then there are the hyper-local efforts.

    Ashland Health CEO Anderson in Zimbabwe. “I was surprised by the similarities between rural America and overseas,” he says.

    In 2009, Douglas, Ariz., a town on the U.S.-Mexico border, received a visit from then-“American Idol” judge Simon Cowell as part of “Idol Gives Back.” Because of a donation from the show, the town was able to convert a former school into a pediatrician's office.

    “It really united the whole community,” says Neil MacKinnon, director of the Center for Rural Health at the University of Arizona. “Sometimes it comes to thinking outside of the box.”

    Ashland (Kan.) Health Center, a public hospital in a town of only 900 people, was another “pretty extreme case” when Benjamin Anderson arrived as CEO in 2009.

    During the past 18 years, 11 physicians had come and gone. The 24-bed hospital was operating with only one physician assistant who was working around the clock and was overseen by a physician 30 miles away who came in for a half-day a week. “That's all that was keeping this place open,” Anderson says.

    Anderson approached two faculty members in the rural health program at Via Christi Health in Wichita, Kan., which has a partnership with Ashland, to ask for their help.

    He was given a list of directives. He was told to offer physician recruits four days of clinic with one day a week on-call, one weekend on call a month, a salary that met the national average, and eight weeks of paid time off for international missionary work.

    “You show them they can be a missionary here for 44 weeks,” Anderson recalls. “The physician who's willing to practice medicine in a mud hut in Africa—they don't need a Nordstrom's or restaurants.”

    Anderson was then asked if he'd be willing to go to Africa to see for himself, and ultimately traveled to Zimbabwe to build screens around missionary housing to prevent malaria. “It was a game-changer for me. And I've been back every year since,” he says. “I was surprised by the similarities between rural America and overseas.”

    Ashland now has two family medicine physicians, two physician assistants and one nurse practitioner. “We've become a little medical hub,” Anderson says, noting that six communities now benefit from the additional coverage. “We share those providers with the surrounding areas.” <<

    Follow Beth Kutscher on Twitter: @MHbkutscher

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Send us a letter

    Have an opinion about this story? Click here to submit a Letter to the Editor, and we may publish it in print.

    Recommended for You
    healthcare workers burnout
    Physicians left their jobs by the hundreds of thousands in 2021: report
    careallies patient care
    Physician assistant role sees record growth in 2021
    Most Popular
    1
    Centene to lay off 2,000 workers
    2
    How health systems are battling price-gouging allegations
    3
    Senate advances bill to temporarily aid hospitals, health centers
    4
    Elevance, Blue Cross Louisiana halt $2.5B proposed deal
    5
    Tower Health to sell urgent care centers, close others
    Sponsored Content
    Get Newsletters

    Sign up for enewsletters and alerts to receive breaking news and in-depth coverage of healthcare events and trends, as they happen, right to your inbox.

    Subscribe Today
    MH Magazine Cover

    MH magazine offers content that sheds light on healthcare leaders’ complex choices and touch points—from strategy, governance, leadership development and finance to operations, clinical care, and marketing.

    Subscribe
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS

    Our Mission

    Modern Healthcare empowers industry leaders to succeed by providing unbiased reporting of the news, insights, analysis and data.

    Contact Us

    (877) 812-1581

    Email us

     

    Resources
    • Contact Us
    • Help Center
    • Advertise with Us
    • Ad Choices
    • Sitemap
    Editorial Dept
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Code of Ethics
    • Awards
    • About Us
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Modern Healthcare
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Current News
      • Providers
      • Insurance
      • Government
      • Finance
      • Technology
      • Safety & Quality
      • Digital Health
      • Transformation
        • Patients
        • Operations
        • Care Delivery
        • Payment
      • ESG
      • People
      • Regional News
        • Midwest
        • Northeast
        • South
        • West
      • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Blogs
      • AI
      • Deals
      • Layoff Tracker
      • HIMSS 2023
    • Opinion
      • Breaking Bias
      • Commentaries
      • Letters
      • From the Editor
    • Events & Awards
      • Awards
        • Nominate/Eligibility
        • 100 Most Influential People
        • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
        • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
        • Excellence in Governance
        • Health Care Hall of Fame
        • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
        • Top 25 Emerging Leaders
        • Top Innovators
        • Diversity in Healthcare
          • - Luminaries
          • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
          • - Leaders to Watch
        • Women in Healthcare
          • - Luminaries
          • - Top 25 Women Leaders
          • - Women to Watch
      • Conferences
        • Digital Health Transformation Summit
        • ESG: The Implementation Imperative Summit
        • Leadership Symposium
        • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
        • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
      • Galas
        • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
        • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
        • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
        • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
      • Virtual Briefings
        • - Hospital of the Future
        • - Value Based Care
        • - Hospital at Home
        • - Workplace of the Future
        • - AI and Digital Health
        • - Future of Staffing
        • - Hospital of the Future (Fall)
      • Webinars
    • Multimedia
      • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
      • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
      • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
      • Sponsored Video Series - Checking In with Dan Peres
    • Data & Insights
      • Data & Insights Home
      • Hospital Financials
      • Staffing & Compensation
      • Quality & Safety
      • Mergers & Acquisitions
      • Data Archive
      • Resource Guide: By the Numbers
      • Surveys
      • Data Points
    • Newsletters
    • MORE+
      • Contact Us
      • Advertise
      • Media Kit
      • Jobs
      • People on the Move
      • Reprints & Licensing