Like any other healthcare institution in the U.S., Albany, Ga.-based Phoebe Putney Health System has been challenged with the physician shortage, President and CEO Scott Steiner told Becker’s.
It is why the four-hospital system is partnering with Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta to build stronger pipelines and advance care access and health equity.
Phoebe has had its own family medicine residency for more than 30 years, welcoming a class of eight residents per year. It is not nearly enough, however, Mr. Steiner said. It also does not adequately support some of the other subspecialties that have moved into the primary care arena, such as OB-GYN, internal medicine and behavioral health, he added.
“Traditional recruitment is still an option,” he said. “But just like nursing, the best way to not only recruit but to get physicians to stay here is to train them here in Southwest Georgia — and even better if they’re from Georgia and from a rural community.”
Laying the foundation for growth
The organizations in February signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on education, research and community benefit initiatives. The partnership aims to establish a regional Morehouse School of Medicine campus and launch new residency programs at Phoebe.
They plan to begin with family medicine, internal medicine, psychiatry, general surgery and OB-GYN residency programs, Mr. Steiner said. Phoebe currently has two OB-GYN residents and expects that number to increase to three in summer 2025, four in 2026 and five in 2027. The organizations also aim to launch the internal medicine residency by summer 2026.
The two-year regional MSM campus is also expected to open in 2026. A four-year medical school in Albany is a possibility in the future, but “that’s yet to be determined,” Mr. Steiner said.
“In the four- to six-year mark from today, we could start doing fellowships and other residencies in specialties like urology,” he said. “There are more urologists retiring every year than going into practice, and as we have an aging population across the U.S., we need more urologists.”
The partnership will take 10 to 15 years to fully mature, Mr. Steiner said.
“We’re going to try to fast-track it because our community needs it and they deserve it,” he said.
Advancing health equity, access
The two organizations also plan to develop a research hub to expand clinical trials that address community health needs. While Phoebe already conducts oncology clinical trials, there are other opportunities, Mr. Steiner said.
Equity is not only about services that are available to everyone and all communities, the research has to be for everyone as well, he said.
“It’s not only about studying the people that are here and their health outcomes, but that research that is going to drive changes in the delivery of healthcare for future generations,” Mr. Steiner said. “It opens up a whole new corridor for Morehouse School of Medicine and their researchers, and it provides our community that same access to experimental drugs and therapies that they most likely wouldn’t have had before.”
Choosing the right partner
Phoebe and Morehouse School of Medicine have collaborated for years on health equity and community cancer screening initiatives. Through these projects, they have built trust and remained aligned in their community-based mission.
MSM has also demonstrated its commitment by investing time, attention and resources into the Southwest Georgia community, Mr. Steiner said.
“With partners, you go out on a limb for each other, and we’ve seen that with MSM,” he said. “I’m convinced that when you have a program like this and a partner like them, all boats in Albany and Southwest Georgia will rise — whether it’s quality of care, availability, outcomes or equity.”
