With multiple hospitals in Augusta, it’s not hard for people living in the area to find a physician.
That’s not the case in other parts of the peach state, however.
“There are some counties with no doctors and many with one physician,” said Ian Mercier, president and CEO of the Medical College of Georgia Foundation, which recently provided $8.7 million to match state funds for a program that places physicians in underserved and rural parts of the state.
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The MCG 3+ Primary Care Pathway is a program designed to fast-track the education of physicians to get them into practice sooner. Students who commit to practice primary care in a rural or underserved community in Georgia can graduate in three years and “immediately enter a residency in Georgia in either family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry, emergency medicine, obstetrics and gynecology or general surgery,” according to a news release from Augusta University.
Those students receive a scholarship to cover their tuition.
The MCG 3+ Primary Care Pathway Program received $8.7 million in funding during the 2022 Georgia legislative session.
“Since day one of my administration, we’ve recognized a need for and worked to strengthen Georgia’s nursing and physician pipeline — especially in rural Georgia,” said Gov. Brian Kemp, in a news release. “Investments in programs like the MCG 3+ Primary Care Pathway help us toward our goal of building a safer, stronger and healthier Georgia, and we are grateful that the Medical College of Georgia Foundation has generously chosen to match these funds and support this critical need.”
These funds are in addition to another $5.2 million committed in 2021 matching a gift through the Peach State Health Plan.
The country is facing a physician shortage, said Mercier, and “it’s about to get worse.”
The Association of American Medical Colleges has projected a shortage of between 46,900 and 121,900 physicians by 2032, the news release said. It will worsen as the country’s population ages and more physicians retire.
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Augusta University president Dr. Brooks Keel mentioned state funding for the program at his May 31 State of the University address.
“I am incredibly excited about the leadership and the vision for our colleagues in the medical college,” said Keel.
At the heart of the program is a change to how medical students are trained in an effort to help the underserved in the state.
“We are finally going to be able to do the things that you would expect the state’s only public medical school to do. And that is provide physicians for rural and underserved Georgia, which by the way, is just about all Georgia,” he said.
Eight Medical College of Georgia students are already part of this program. They started at MCG in June 2020 and will graduate in 2023. A new cohort will be selected this month.
Charmain Z. Brackett is the managing editor of The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com Dana Lynn McIntyre contributed to this report.
