Renee Shaktivel
Staff Writer
The process of hiring more doctors is more complicated than one might think.
Idaho, in particular, suffers, ranking 49th in the United States in physicians per-capita. This means that the state has 6.7 medical residents per 100,000 people while the national median is 28.1. Within the next decade, approximately 27% of Idaho physicians are set to retire, which will only add to the issue.
In order to combat that, the ISU Family Residency Program has been working to expand.
“Idaho has such a deficiency of family physicians, that we have been asked by the state to expand our training efforts,” said Rex Force, ISU Health Science Vice President. “The overall plan that the State Board of Education has endorsed would more than double the number of physicians graduating in Idaho in ten years.”
Idaho governor C.L. ‘Butch’ Otter expanded Graduate Medical Education (GME) in 2010 and 2016. In 2016, the state proposed a 10-year plan to expand facilities and increase residency rates. The GME houses residents during their three-year training that’s required after graduating medical school.
Each year there are more medical students graduating than there are residency slots for them to train,” said Kelli Christensen, Pocatello Family Medicine Assistant Direct. “This is the basis for the push to expand GME in our state.”
It is estimated that between 50-75% of residents stay within 100 miles of their residency. Idaho would see a GME applicant increase of 222%, resident and fellow increase of 252%, and Idaho graduate increase of 237%.
ISU’s expansion would bring more residents per-year, a 10-year GME expansion plan with two new rural training tracks, a one-year family medicine fellowship, a base residency increase, and a possibility of psychiatry residency.
Expansion at the ISU Family Medicine residency requires both new funding and a new clinical facility to accommodate both the family medicine expansion and the new psychiatry residency,” said Dr. Bill Woodhouse, director of external relations for the ISU Family Medicine Residency.
ISU has received initial funding in the 2018 budget, however for further advancement of the GME expansion, additional funding must be approved in May allowing Family Residency Program to start recruiting students into the Rexburg rural residency program in Fall 2019.
Rexburg is a large enough community to provide a rich clinical experience for our residents, but small enough to learn the special nuances of health care in a rural community.” Christensen said.
The current family residency program graduates seven physicians annually, consisting of three years of medical school plus three additional years to specialize in family medicine. With the expansion, residents would complete one year in Pocatello and the remaining two years in Rexburg to specialize as rural family doctors.
“Healthcare today is team based. Physicians are working close with nurses, pharmacists, physical therapists, laboratory professionals.” Force said. “So, any time we are looking at expanding our medical training programs there are possibilities for those opportunities to be interdisciplinary.”
