Mercer University is opening a new medical school campus. Mercer already has medical schools in Macon and Savannah. The third site will be in Columbus.

Twenty-four Mercer students will begin clinical rotations this summer at St. Francis Hospital and the Medical Center in Columbus. Recruitment of faculty is already underway.

Macon-based Mercer limits medical school applications to Georgia residents in order to address a growing shortage of doctors, particularly in rural parts of the state. Dr. William Bina is the Dean of Mercer’s Medical School.

“You talk to the hospital leadership; they’re saying their physician groups are aging. They’re looking to recruit the next lever of physicians into practice because they want them there for 20 or 30 years.”

Bina says Georgia ranks 39th in the nation in physicians per capita. Most of those doctors are expected to retire in the next 15 years.

Tags: Columbus Georgia, Mercer University School of Medicine, Georgia doctor shortage, rural medicine