MVHS Rx for doctor shortage: Expanding medical education

A lot of doctors have moved to the Utica area over the past few months.

The majority of them are still in training, of course, having come to the area for the greatly expanded medical education program at the Mohawk Valley Health System and, starting in late October, at its new Wynn Hospital in downtown Utica.

There are now 66 doctors in five residency programs in the health system, 56 of them having started last summer or more recently. Before that, there were only 10 medical residents in the decade-old family medicine residency program.

In a few years, once all the residency programs are fully implemented, 92 medical residents will be training at MVHS.

The health system has also added residency programs in podiatry and pharmacy, created a training program for family nurse practitioners and expanded its education for medical students.

MVHS officials are hoping its medical education programs will help with the area’s shortage of doctors, especially specialists.

Anyone who’s ever tried to find a primary doctor has probably spent a lot of time on the phone, said Dr. Eric Yoss, chief academic officer.

But what if you need a pulmonologist? “You’re going to spend an even longer time on the phone to find someone,” he said.

A general surgeon? That’s a loooooong wait, Yoss said.

“We are short everything,” he added. “I can’t think of an area, physicians in any specialty, subspecialty, primary care, where the area doesn’t need physicians. Central New York and, really, upstate New York, is devastatingly short on doctors.”

But doctors are more likely to practice where they trained, which has proven true of the health system’s decade-old family medicine residency program.

“They won’t all stay in Utica, but 50 percent of them will stay around Utica,” Yoss said. “So maybe they go to Rome, maybe they go to Plattsburgh or Pottsdam, but they are staying in this area.”

Is MVHS already engaged in medical education programs?

Besides its family medicine residency, MVHS has long had a dental residency program, the St. Elizabeth College of Nursing and a program to provide clinical rotations for eight third-year medical students from the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine.

MVHS is also used as a clinical site for training nursing students, not only from St. Elizabeth, but also from Mohawk Valley Community College, Utica University and SUNY Morrisville.

Why is MVHS expanding medical education now?

With the state-of-the-art Wynn Hospital opening on Oct. 29, the timing is right.

The new hospital makes a great recruiting tool for specialists to teach, for residents and for medical schools, Yoss said. The hospital has also expanded its clinical rotations for medical students, which will help it to keep its residency programs going.

And the rules governing new residency programs say it’s now or never for the health system.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which pays for residency programs, fixes the number of residency spots available. Only hospitals, like the hospital on the health system’s St. Luke’s Campus, that don’t already have a residency program may apply to start one.  (The family medicine residency program is based at the St. Elizabeth Campus.)

Once the Wynn Hospital opens, though, St. Elizabeth and St. Luke’s will merge into one hospital and the window for starting new programs will have closed.

What new residency programs have started in the last two years for medical school graduates?

• Psychiatry: A four-year program with four new residents a year, for a total of 16 residents after four years.  

• General surgery: Six residents a year, three in a one-year program before they enter subspecialty residencies and three for a five-year program for a total of 18 residents once the program is fully implemented. 

• Obstetrics-gynecology: Four students a year joining a four-year program for an eventual total of 16 residents.

• Transitional year: General meMedical school graduates This program, which began this summer, is for medical school graduates who are required to have a year of general medical training before they can enter residencies in certain specialties, such as radiology or urology, Yoss said.

How else has MVHS expanded its educational programs since last summer?

• Podiatry residency. One resident will start this three-year program each year.

• Pharmacy residency. Two residents each year in a two-year program.

• Family nurse practitioner residency. A one-year, non-accredited, homegrown program to help family nurse practitioner graduates become more proficient.

• Medical students. Third and fourth-year students medical students from the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, mostly from its Elmira campus, are now training at MVHS.

Has MVHS applied for more residency programs?

An application to expand the family residency program to an 11th resident each year was rejected.

An emergency medicine residency is on hold after the health system’s first application was turned down because the Wynn Hospital doesn’t have a pediatric intensive care unit.

What are the benefits of an expanded medical education program other than medical residents hopefully choosing to practice in the area?

“Having the additional specialty residencies will help our patients greatly by having more specialists to refer to, especially for areas of great need, including psychiatry, and bringing top providers in the various specialties who enjoy teaching,” said Dr. Karishma Circelli, director of primary care for the MVHS Medical Group. “Being a teaching institution will improve access to care and quality of care in our area.”

Here are other benefits, according to health system doctors:

• MVHS has already opened a podiatry clinic, with a waiting list already, because of podiatrists hired for the residency program.

• There is a national doctor shortage, in part because the country doesn’t train enough doctors. Adding clinical rotations for medical students and medical residency programs will allow more doctors to train.

• Teaching programs tend to improve the overall quality of medical care in a hospital.

• Medical residents increase patients’ access to care, especially specialty care, because there are simply more health-care providers to see patients.

This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: MVHS training more medical residents, students, hoping many will stay