Tyson Wisinger, Phillipsburg, left, and Daniel Linville, of Douglass, are first-year medical students at KU School of Medicine's new Salina campus. They are pictured during orientation Friday, July 22, 2011.
As the need for more doctors increases, the Kansas University School of Medicine has expanded to produce more physicians, especially for under-served areas.
But more needs to be done, said Barbara Atkinson, executive vice chancellor of the KU Medical Center and executive dean of the School of Medicine.
“We are barely keeping up,” Atkinson said. “We would like to see the addition of more students to our class.”
Rural legislators express sympathy. “We are losing so many of our doctors who have been there for years and are retiring,” said Sen. Ruth Teichman, R-Stafford.
But producing more doctors will require more money and that may be difficult given Gov. Sam Brownback’s desire to build budget reserves and cut both taxes and spending. Brownback also has recently added reducing the state’s debt to his budget priorities.
In recent years, the KU School of Medicine, based in Kansas City, Kan., has opened a new campus in Salina and expanded its school in Wichita. Much of this has been financed with private donations and tuition.
Kansas University Medical Center's School of Medicine is located at 3901 Rainbow Boulevard in Kansas City, Kan. by Kevin Anderson
Prior to 2011, each incoming class had 175 students, all of whom completed their first and second years at the main campus at Kansas City, Kan. For the third and fourth years of training, 55 would go to the Wichita campus. But through expansion, this year’s incoming class is 191 students with eight first-year students in Salina and eight in Wichita.
Starting next school year, the incoming class will consist of 211 students: 175 in Kansas City; 28 in Wichita and eight in Salina. The Salina campus is the smallest four-year medical education site in the country, and KU officials hope that it will become a model for producing rural doctors.
With the number of qualified applicants KU receives, Atkinson said the university could have taken 100 more medical students this year, if it had the resources.
But funding problems are on the horizon.
A medical school loan program that has produced doctors for rural areas needs cash, Atkinson said. KU is seeking $1.9 million to allow the program to be maintained at 120 loans per year, which is the same number of loans that has been offered for at least the last 10 years.
Under the program, a student receives tuition, fees and a monthly stipend. The loan can be repaid by entering a primary care specialty, and practicing in an under-served country for one year for each year of loan support. Failure to satisfy the service commitment requires repayment of the loan plus a 15 percent interest penalty.
Years ago, many paid the penalty, but recently nearly all recipients are satisfying their service obligations, which means there is less income going back into the program.
Another funding hurdle is construction of a new medical school education building in Kansas City, Kan., now estimated to cost $78 million. As envisioned, the facility would enable KU to increase the incoming class size at the medical school by 50 students.
“Our current facility is obsolete,” Atkinson said.
But the Kansas Board of Regents recently rejected a plan to submit the building proposal -- and request for a $5 million annual appropriation -- to Brownback’s office.
KU officials have said they hope to have a plan nailed down later this year on how to pay for the project.
Tagged: KU Medical Center, Kansas Legislature, Gov. Sam Brownback
Comments
sunshine_noise (anonymous) says…
More Doctors?? How about better qualified Doctors who know what they are doing, care what they are doing and not in it for just the $$ and really care about their patients or actually now how to treat them and/or keep up with the changes in medicine. I don't have a whole lot of faith in the Doctors here in Lawrence.
Perses (anonymous) replies…
Every doctor I've met, and with my recent illness I've met a lot, have been excellent. You are blowing smoke. If you have concrete evidence of of their lack of expertise either state your case or be gone. Making blanket innuendos is typical of blowhards who just want to stir the pot.
Please take your medical needs to Topeka and quit your whining.
overplayedhistory (anonymous) says…
Do rural communities deserve more doctors when they vote for zealots who campaign against government?
When you vote out of hate, sometimes you end up voting against yourself.
You may be able to cherry pick your ideology and get the latest opportunist that tells you what you want to hear elected. Unfortunately, as a result, you don't get to cherry pick what part of the dark ages (otherwise known as the good old days) you get to live in.
Maybe the kids in the community that excel in anti God disciplines like science, can find wealthy benefactors to put them through med school. I hear some women find men who pay for college in exchange for sex online.
Maybe the Koch Bros. can start a "Doctor for cooters" education fund.
Or you could wake up and smell the micky that you have been slipped next time you vote.
getreal (anonymous) says…
It is not just rural communities who vote for these zealots, Johnson County is full of them. Many rural legislators, like Sen. Teichman are good decent people voting for our schools, healthcare, etc. I understand the frustration overplayedhistory is demonstrating in his post, but this problem with electing individuals who don't care about Kansas, but instead are voting however Koch industries tells them to vote is not limited to any geographic area. People need to research the candidates and their views in every community.
toe (anonymous) says…
Notice that when there is a need for anything these days, a government program is required. More doctors, sure, more State money is needed. With mostly elderly living in rural and western Kansas, and medicare/medicaid reimbursements being controlled by the Federal government, more State dollars will have zero impact. No doctor in his/her right mind would go to school for a third of their life, to get paid by the government at below market rates. Yep, more State money indeed. What a crock.
Perses (anonymous) replies…
Toe, do a little research. There are private and public support organizations who will supplement a physicians income based on the needs of the community. In most cases, these organizations will also pay the exorbitant cost of a medical education in return for years of service. Those are the kind of dollars that the state can provide. The military has been doing this for years.