Rural America needs Doctors and Nurses

Well, I know that the UofM Medical School is trying to address this problem in Minnesota by having a program that places 3rd year medical students in rural MN communities for 9 months where they work and live the life of a rural physician, with the goal that they will return to MN to practice once they've finished residency. It's been fairly successful in that over 60% of the alumni return to MN to practice, and over 60% of those who return, return to a rural Minnesota community/clinic. It's been emulated in other parts of the country, as well as Australia and Alberta, Canada.

This helps, but it is also true that funding for healthcare in Rural communities is poor, although many clinics here in MN do have state of the art equipment, sometimes before the larger hospitals/clinics in the Cities.

Sad but true.

What about the Public Health Service?

You know, this sort of came up in another discussion. I remembered this article about Starbuck MN losing its hospital (Minnesota town struggles as its school and hospital close) and wondered if there could be anyway to prevent elimination on this grand a scale.

Frick, that program you're talkin' about sounds very interesting.

Julia to put a doctor out into any place costs for the building, the staff, the technicians, the nursing staff, the utilities and the property taxes.

For example the staff at a Kaiser medical office of four doctors needed an additional staff of 26 people. This all costs money and the only way to currently get that money out in the rural areas is Medicare or Medicaid money plus the medical rates that can be obtained from the insurance companies and directly from the patients.

Above all the population in the Rural America is spread too thin to support the financial needs of any medical office. That is why I say that the additional help must come from the state or the federal government. However, still the placement of any medical office out in Rural America still will be difficult.

That is why my suggestion of the Department of Public Health as a viable option and the employees could be paid from the Civil Service coffers, and could also rotate from one area to another. Even tho the Rural area is way too thin in the population arena too support any medical center, the employees could still be paid.

By the way Julia, a Primary Care Physician can supervise four to five Nurse Practitioners (NP) or Physician Assistants (PA) even remotely as most of the communication and supervision can be accomplished with computers over the internet and e-mail. However, the NP's and PA's will still need the same supporting staff as a Primary Care Physician.

Thanks for the information, Richard. I wonder if medical care - combined with rising fuel / traveling costs - will change the structure of rural living.

Ah!

Julia - I remember when a gallon of gas cost 15 cents and a Big Mac was 33 cents.

Remember the Fed - Their goal isn't to keep the value of the dollar up but to keep the elastic currency in the ballpark that they want.

We have a war, which will be paid of in the future with dollars of much less value, for that's what we do.

All costs will rise, as all costs have always risen.