MU, Springfield hospitals explore plan to develop more physicians
SBJ Staff
Posted online
CoxHealth and St. John’s are teaming up with the University of Missouri School of Medicine to tackle the state’s physician shortage.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services estimates that 108 of 114 counties are underserved in terms of physicians, so CoxHealth, St. John’s and MU will spend the next year identifying strategies and resources to increase enrollment at the medical school and expand educational opportunities at both systems’ hospitals and clinics.
“Our goal is to not only produce more physicians and improve patient access to care, but to increase the medical students’ access to quality clinical education in our area of the state,” said CoxHealth President and CEO Robert Bezanson, in a news release.
MU and the Springfield hospitals already have a medical education partnership.
Of the more than 75 students who received medical training in southwest Missouri since 2005 through MU's rural track program, 48 were trained through the partnership with CoxHealth and St. John's. The program encourages physicians to complete part of their clinical education in underserved areas and to then practice in Missouri.
“A large part of our service area is rural, so having medical students available in these clinics not only helps them complete their education, it also introduces them to the area and the benefits of practicing here in the Ozarks,” said Jon Swope, president and CEO of St. John’s Health System, in the release. “We are looking forward to possibly expanding many educational opportunities, which benefits both physicians and patients.”
The Association of American Medical Colleges has called on all medical schools to increase class size by 30 percent to address the physician shortage across the country. For each of the past two years, MU has received more than 1,200 applications to medical school, but only has the capacity to accept 96 new medical students annually.[[In-content Ad]]
