The need for more rural doctors is continuously growing in the state of Wisconsin. That issue is now being addressed by special organizations, including the Wisconsin Collaborative for Rural GME (WCRGME). Lori Rodefeld, the Director of Rural GME with the organization, says that they are working to meet the needs of rural areas.
“We work with residency programs throughout the state of Wisconsin, and right now we have 28 rural residency programs,” says Rodefeld. “We also currently have 7 more in development.”
Rodefeld explains that they have 65 incoming residents that will be doing some form of rural training in Wisconsin. Many of these residents will be doing twelve to eighteen months of rural training. With these residencies only 2% nationally take place in rural areas, while those areas hold 20% of the population. This is the issue they are trying to fix.
Retention and Incentives
Out of the medical schools that are in Wisconsin, Rodefeld says they average around 30% to 35% staying in the state for residency. To go along with this, a study done by WARM shows that 50% of Wisconsin medical students stay in Wisconsin to practice or come back to the state to practice. It is also shown that 70% of residents will stay within 100 miles of where they did their training.
There are incentives being used to keep students in the state as well. A big one is loan repayment. This is a large selling point for students as many will graduate medical school with $200,000 to $300,000 of debt. Some groups also have their own incentives like giving scholarships to students who promise to return and work there for a set number of years.
The Programs
“Wisconsin is home to the first rural OB-GYN program in the country,” says Rodefeld. “Those students train in different communities to help meet the needs of the maternity care deserts.”
According to Rodefeld, the most common specialty that is seen in rural areas is family medicine. This is due to the lack of specialists in rural areas. There is also a huge need for rural general surgeons, which Wisconsin is combatting by having three rural surgery programs within the state. Wisconsin also has multiple psychiatry programs that do rural training.
Looking forward Rodefeld says that they are going to add more programs funded my state grants. She also adds that once all the programs are put in place and accredited, they will have added 300 new resident positions in the state since 2012. That will equate to around 100 new physicians going into Wisconsin residency programs each year. At the WCRGME they are excited to continue to help meet the growing need for rural healthcare across the country.
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