The Northeast Kentucky AHEC's Physician Pipeline Powerpoint

1. The Northeast Kentucky
AHEC’s Physician Pipeline
(and UPike Partnership)
David A. Gross, MPA
SOAR Strategy Summit – Community Health Panel
Feb. 16, 2015

2. “What the heck’s an AHEC?”
 Created by Congress in the
1970s to enhance access to
quality health care
 Mission: Improve the supply
and distribution of health care
professionals
 Community/academic
educational partnerships

3. Kentucky’s regional AHECs

4. Health careers pipeline (2013)
Health
Careers
Promotion
Student
Services
Continuing
Education
Middle / High School
• In-class programming
• Rural Health Scholars program
• Health Opportunities Workshop
Undergraduates
• Notes from Home
Medical School
and Residency
• Letters from Home
Continuing Medical Education (CME)
Accreditation Council for Pharmacy
Education (ACPE)

5. Med school data analysis
 Matriculants/applicants:
 UK COM (2009-’13) 26/115 = 22.6%
 UofL SOM (2009-’13) 27/101 = 26.7%
 UPike KyCOM (2009-’13) 40/95 = 41.6%
 TOTAL 93/311 = 29.9%

6. Med school data analysis
 The bad news:
 Two NE AHEC counties (Menifee and Nicholas) had 0
applications to in-state medical schools from 2009-’13
 An additional county (Powell) had 0 matriculants
 From 2009-’13, 12 NE AHEC service counties had four or
fewer matriculants to in-state medical schools
 This includes Mason (three) and Montgomery (three)
 From 2011-’13, NE AHEC ranked 4th, 5th, and 6th,
respectively, among KY’s eight regional AHECs for
applications to the UK COM

7. About SHIP
 Summer Health Internship Program: Paid
internships for undergraduate health professions
students in local health-focused organizations
 Replication of Wisconsin
AHEC’s statewide CHIP
 Eligibility

8. About the program
 Host site recruitment
 Application process
 Student selection and
placement

9. 2013-’14 SHIP placements
 Increase from four-week to six-week internships
 Gateway District Health Department
 Meadowview Regional Medical Center
 Montgomery County Health Department
 Morgan County ARH Hospital
 Northeast Kentucky Regional Health Information Org.
 St. Claire Family Medicine-Morehead
 St. Claire Regional Medical Center (Quality Management)

10. Evaluation (2013-’14)
 Interns were unanimous in their evaluation of
SHIP as ‘a positive experience’
 Impact on interns’ rural practice preference:
Reinforced
60%
Encouraged
30%
Neutral
10%

11. Evaluation
“I just wanted to let you know that I was accepted into
UK’s Rural Physician Leadership Program! … Thanks again
for everything! If it wasn’t for you guys at AHEC, I don’t
know if I would’ve gotten into medical school.”
E-mail from 2013 SHIP participant
(Received Jan. 23, 2014)

12. About STEPS
 Successful Training in Educating Pre-medical
Students (STEPS)
 During pilot year (2013-’14), targeted juniors in
Morehead State University’s pre-medicine program
 MCAT reviews and practice test
 Physician shadowing
 Application process tutorials
 Mock interviews

13. More about STEPS
 Survey found unanimous satisfaction with the
overall program and that STEPS helped each
participant with the medical school admissions
process
 Average MCAT scores increased by 4.25 points
from the practice test (n = 4) to actual MCAT
exam (n = 6)

15. The payoff
 The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects health-
related industries will add more jobs (5 million)
than any other industry from 2012 to 2022
 Annual economic impact of a rural Ky. PCP:
 $1.7 million in revenue (clinic and hospital)
 $800,000 in payroll
 20 jobs
Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014;
Kentucky Rural Health Works Program, 2007

16. Regional responsibility
 It takes a region to raise (and retain) a doctor
 Three medical residency programs in NE KY
 St. Claire added osteopathic FM residency in 2013

17. David A. Gross, MPA
Director, Northeast Kentucky AHEC
316 W. Second Street, Suite 203
Morehead, KY 40351
david.gross@neahec.org
(606) 783-6468