ANN ARBOR, Mich. - By 2020, studies suggest there could be a shortage of at least 35,000 primary care physicians.

The University of Michigan's Department of Family Medicine is responding to those concerns by expanding its residency program next summer for the first time in more than a decade, thanks to nearly $1 million of federal funds.

Family Medicine will receive a $960,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, to increase the number of residents in its three-year program from 10 to 11 per year.

The grant will allow Family Medicine to continue recruiting 11 residents for the next five years. In July 2011, the department will welcome its first 11-member residency class.

"Over the total funding period, there will be five more University of Michigan-trained primary care physicians produced because of this grant," says Jim Cooke, M.D.,assistant professor of family medicine and U-M's Family Medicine residency director.

The grant is part of a $168 million initiative to expand the primary care workforce in response to a projected shortfall of primary care physicians. The anticipated shortage stems from a combination of an aging population and increasing number of Americans who receive health insurance.

"This is significant in that it is the first expansion in the residency program since 1996, when the program increased from eight residents per year to 10 per year," says Cooke.

The grant will bolster the primary care workforce and also strengthen the roles of wellness and prevention in the American health care system, says Kathleen Sebelius, HHS secretary.

"Chronic diseases, most of which are preventable, are one of the main reasons health care costs have soared over the past several decades," says Sebelius. "Investing in our primary care workforce will strengthen the role that wellness and prevention play in our health care system. With these grants, Americans from all backgrounds will have new opportunities to enter the health care workforce."

In 1997, the Balanced Budget Act capped funding for graduate medical education programs. Under the act, the Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Family Medicine and Primary Care reported the net loss of 390 first-year family medicine resident positions, 865 general internal medicine positions and the loss of 40 family medicine and 25 internal medicine programs.

Currently, about 30 percent of the U.S. population reports trouble accessing primary care, according to the Robert Graham Center.

Final approval of the Family Medicine residency program's expansion is pending, but Cooke says faculty and residents are optimistic about the outcome.

"There is a huge need in the primary care workforce nationwide. Family medicine and other primary care residency programs need to anticipate the nation's health care needs as more patients receive health care coverage," says Cooke. "We hope that this increase will help meet the needs of our communities."

U-M Family Medicine residents provide inpatient medical, pediatric and obstetric care at the University Hospital, inpatient medical care at Chelsea Community Hospital and outpatient care at the UMHS Chelsea Health Center and Ypsilanti Health Center during their three-year residency.

Program officials intend to seek additional funding to maintain the increased residency class size beyond the fifth year of the federal grant funding to meet the anticipated long-term need for primary care physicians.

"Federal support through Medicare for residency training has remained capped since 1997 and has not kept pace with the need for well-trained physicians," says Cooke. "We are hopeful that graduate medical education funding is expanded to meet demand, especially for the primary care needs of our nation."

Funding: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Resources:
U-M's Department of Family Medicine
http://www.med.umich.edu/fammed/

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
http://www.hhs.gov/

Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Family Medicine and Primary Care
www.graham-center.org/online/graham/home.html 
 

Written by Heather Guenther