Georgia Searches for Ways to Reduce Healthcare Provider Shortage

The Georgia House Study Committee on Medical Education is searching for ways to address a shortage of healthcare professionals. Georgia is expected to rank 50th in primary physician care per capita by the year 2020.

Medical experts met at Mercer University Thursday to discuss how to keep medical students in Georgia after graduation and the lack of primary care physicians.

Mercer Medical School partnered with Memorial Health to create the Family Medicine- Accelerated Curriculum Training program or FM-ACT, three years ago. The program recruits students with a desire to practice medicine in Georgia and puts them on a three- year instead of four-year time path to graduation.

Dr. Daniel Gordon is a former FM-ACT student and a current resident in the program.

“There’s a lot of popularity in other specialties,” he says. “There’s a lot of gravity in that because of status and income and as medical students we get excited about those things.”

The program has increased the number of students choosing family medicine residencies by 7-8 percent.

However, FM-ACT does not offer tuition forgiveness, so officials with the program are requesting state support to provide that option. Several Georgia House Study Committee members say the state needs more tuition forgiveness programs for medical training statewide.

Family Medicine Resident Madeline Russell has more than $300,000 in medical school debt. She says she decided not to pursue fellowship training in Georgia because competition is fierce and only a handful of slots are available in the state each year.

House Committee members say most students end up practicing medicine within 50 miles of where they were trained.

Dr. Ryan Marten is a current resident with the Family Medicine program. The Georgia native planned to practice pulmonary health in the state one day, but he says he may go elsewhere because of a lack of training opportunities in specialized medicine.

“I don’t know what I’ll do if I don’t get a spot in Georgia. It’s heartbreaking.”

Tags: GPB, GPB Savannah, FM-ACT, Georgia House Study Committee on Medical Education, Mercer Medical School, Ryan Marten