HJBR Mar/Apr 2024

PHYSICIAN ACCESS GAPS 14 MAR / APR 2024 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE   CEO Blake Kramer. “I want to be able to see residents come through here who wind up at Columbia, who go to Delhi, to Rayville and to Tallulah. A lot of those students grad- uating from VCOM already know our doc- tors. They’ve already come through on clini- cal rotations with us as med students. We’ve already heard from them that, yes, I would like to do a residency here.” Lori Rodefeld and Emily Hawes, who pro- vide technical assistance for RRPD grant- ees, said this HRSA program has helped create more than 40 GME programs and more than 500 resident positions in just four years. “We are starting to see that ripple effect of graduates staying in those rural commu- nities,” said Rodefeld. “They are starting to make a difference in communities that had previously been [physician] deserts.” Rodefeld, who also serves as director of GME development for the Wisconsin Col- laborative for Rural Graduate Medical Edu- cation, reported that her home state has more than 20 rural residency programs. “We’ve retained over 70% of graduates in the state with a majority of those practicing rural,” she added. In Lafayette, Logue recently helped create a GME program to train general surgeons who serve rural Acadiana. More than 500 applicants applied for three training slots in the new program. Three finalists will be matched with the program in March 2024. “We’ve been considering new ways to pro- vide care in rural areas where doctors can still feel like they are getting the collabora- tive support they need, but also stretching their legs by doing a day a week in the com- munity that needs them,” she said. To help meet Louisiana’s need for pedi- atricians, Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center sponsored a pediatrics res- idency program with 36 residents. “It was about our commitment to expanding access to vulnerable populations,” said Vice Presi- dent of Quality & Academic Affairs Christi Pierce. “We know that we have an opportu- nity to continue to serve those most in need. When we have medical residents, it adds a layer of innovation, adds a level of schol- arly activity and research, and we want to ensure that our patients have access to the best care, and the most up-to-date care.” St. Tammany Health System and Och- sner Health recently partnered to improve regional access with a new family medicine residency program at a new North Coving- ton clinic beginning July 1, 2024. The pro- gram will train a cohort of eight new resi- dents per year, for a total of 24 residents. “I have 918 applications for my eight spots this year,” said the program’s director Lisa Casey, MD, speaking of Louisiana’s potential to grow physician training statewide. North Oaks Health System recently received accreditation to train 24 internal medicine residents, with the first cohort beginning in July 2024. Health system leaders said they plan to expand residency programs in other areas, including family medicine. The health system’s CMO, Rob- ert Peltier, MD, mentioned the value of local physicians’ support, reporting, “Currently, we have over 60 physicians who have begun participating in our GME initiatives.” Expanding GME Programs Our Lady of Angels Hospital operates an LSU Rural Family Medicine Residency pro- gram, which has existed in Bogalusa, Lou- isiana, since 2007. The program recently received federal funding to increase its class size from six to seven residents under Sec- tion 126 of the ConsolidatedAppropriations Act of 2021. “We were the perfect fit for that type of funding,” said Our Lady of the Angels CMO Brian Galofaro, MD, who originally came to the rural hospital as a medical student doing rotations and later served as the hospital’s chief resident before graduating in the first cohort of hospital residents. The program has produced 76 rural physicians since its inception. Galofaro said the goal of the programwas “to train truly rural doctors, meaning these doctors can go out to a remote area where there are little to no specialists, and essen- tially do everything with great competence, like an old-fashioned family doctor — deliver babies, perform surgeries, and provide inpa- tient medicine.” First-year resident Timilehin Oluseye, MD, spoke of the significant chronic health- care conditions and behavioral health needs in the rural community. “The great thing is “We know that we have an opportunity to continue to serve those most in need. When we have medical residents, it adds a layer of innovation, adds a level of scholarly activity and research, and we want to ensure that our patients have access to the best care, and the most up-to-date care.” —Christi Pierce, Vice President of Quality & Academic Affairs, Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center