If you can get med students to do their residency in the Mississippi Delta, the numbers show 60-percent will stay.
Delta Health System leadership recognized that for this concept to be successful it would require a strong commitment and the need to be executed through a Delta-wide partnership.
A major step toward that goal was accomplished when an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) conducted a site visit at DHS and approved their idea.
According to Delta Health System CEO Scott Christensen, some of the initiatives to combat physician attrition and rural healthcare access have already begun.
Last summer, the first-ever Mississippi Delta Family Medicine Residency program launched with seven family medicine residents. Within three years, there will be 24 family medical doctors completing their residency in the Delta.
Research shows that typically 60-percent of medical residents will choose to continue their practice in the area where they did their residency.
“The Family Medicine Residency program alone has the potential to solve the physician attrition problem for the Delta,” said Christensen. “The hope is that these residents will choose to stay in the Delta region, whether that’s in Greenville, Indianola, Belzoni, Clarksdale, Greenwood, Rolling Fork, or any other Delta community.”
Efforts to address rural healthcare access under the Delta Health System include multiple strategies such as partnerships with other Delta-based hospitals, new medical clinics in smaller towns and expansion of telehealth services into non-medical facilities such as retailers and schools.
Last year, a new clinic in Arcola was opened and earlier this summer, a partnership with CSpire for Remote Patient Monitoring was announced as the first of its type in the state.
“There is a shortage of physicians in Mississippi and especially in the Delta region so the development of the Mississippi Delta Family Medicine Residency program is vital to the future of health care for all of the region’s population,” said Christensen. “We are working to establish positive relationships with all resident physicians to entice them to stay right here in the Mississippi Delta to serve and care for our patients.”
