Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/707298
JULY 27 - AUGUST 2, 2016 UCW 13 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Starting a new business can be fraught with risks, but sometimes they're well worth taking. Cape Fear Valley Health intends to open a new medical residency program next year. But first, it must reclassify as a rural hospital instead of urban. The move is necessary because the federal government restricts the number of residency programs in urban areas. By reclassifying, Cape Fear Valley stands to lose $10 million a year in fed- eral funding. But what the health system loses up front comes back in the form of more doctors eventually practicing in the area. The North Carolina Legislature recently approved $7.7 million in funding to help offset Cape Fear Valley's budget shortfall. Campbell University is partnering with Cape Fear Valley as the academic sponsor for the endeavor and will provide an additional $3 million in funding. That's good news for everyone, especially for patients in the region. Like many parts of the U.S., North Carolina is feeling the pressure of a nationwide doctor shortage. Family medicine and primary care physicians are especially hard to come by. There are currently 2,800 family physicians in North Carolina. But the state will need nearly 2,000 more by 2030, according to the N.C. Academy of Family Physicians. The problem stems from the aging U.S. population. Baby Boomers are simply living longer. The fastest growing age group in America is 65 plus. But the two second-fastest groups are people age 0-17 and 25-34, so there is a definite need for more family physicians. "I'm excited," said Cape Fear Valley CEO Mike Nagowski. "Our medical staff has been nationally recognized and approved to begin training the next genera- tion of physicians. This will be a tremendous benefit to our region, because data shows residents often practice within 50 miles of where they train." The health system is working with Campbell University's Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine, which has a mission to train doctors for ru- ral areas. The Buies Creek medical school is projected to provide up to 300 medical students a year for the program. Medical students complete resi- dency training in a specialty, such as family medicine or pediatrics, before they practice medicine. The residency program is expected to generate $30 million a year towards the local economy, because all the program's residents and staffers will live and work in the immediate area. Residents will make approximately $50,000 a year. Faculty and support personnel will make another $50,000 to $400,000 a year. By 2027, more than 900 total jobs will be created under the program. The total projected economic impact for southeastern North Carolina is $574 million. That's equal to bringing a large company to town. The best part is that this company's employees will all be future doctors. The first residents should begin doing rotations at Cape Fear Valley hos- pitals and facilities by summer 2017. They'll train under the watchful eye of staff physicians in several fields. They include general surgery, emergency medicine, obstetrics, pediatrics, internal medicine and psychiatry. "Only a select few health systems are capable of training physicians, physi- cian assistants, nurse practitioners and other highly trained clinical experts," Nagowski said. "I'm proud to say Cape Fear Valley will be among the select few." Cops across America are hurt every day. A dozen officers were gunned down in a two-week period this month in Texas, Louisiana, Michigan and Kansas. The Democratic National Convention held in Philadelphia this week put a lot of pressure on the city's police department as the Republican National Convention did last week in Cleveland. John McNesby, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge in Philadelphia, says he thinks attacks on police officers similar to the ones in Dallas and Baton Rouge will continue until there is a political solution to the problem. "Unless somebody starts to do something and starts backing the police, this is going to continue," he said. Fayetteville Police Chief Harold Medlock agrees. "It's terrifying," he said, of the cop killings this month. Like law enforcement agencies everywhere, Fayetteville police are conducting their daily lives differently since Dallas. "We're doing all we can to make sure they're safe," said Medlock. "These officers are leaving their families every day and going to work." The chief has been personally attending daily assemblies as officers prepare to hit the streets allowing them to express their concerns. "It's an opportunity for me to listen to them and reassure them that the vast majority of people support law enforcement," he added. He said that two more experienced officers resigned this week to go into other lines of work. There is an element of fear because, while others run from gunfire, law enforcement officers rush into the fight, Medlock said. "They fight through the fear because that's what we do." The silver lining through all the violence is that there has been an outpouring of support from ordinary citizens, and that's gratifying Medlock said. He notes the day has come that urban police forces in the U.S. are now armed with long guns as well as side arms. Many of Fayetteville's patrol officers are equipped with semi-automatic, high- capacity rifles. Others are assigned 12-guage shotguns. They are required to take familiarization training courses on a regular basis. The weapons are carried in gun racks in their cruisers, not in the trunks of the cars as they once were. All members of the department are required to wear body armor, including plainclothes detectives, whenever they are conducting investigations out of the office. Two patrol cars respond now to each and every call no matter how routine, which is a word Medlock doesn't like to use. That way, he says, he keeps the same number of cars on the street but can provide immediate backup, "and there has been no decrease in response time. We'll do that until we can go back to responses that ordinarily require only one officer," Medlock said. Chief Medlock points to a statistic that he believes shows that the FPD has turned the corner on the de-escalation of police use of force, which has a calming influence on the community. "In the last 18 months," he said, "there have been 92 instances in which people were armed with guns or were threatening us with guns, and not once did officers resort to the use of deadly force." He attributes the change to training and the professionalism of the city's more than 400 cops. Prior to Medlock taking office as chief of police in early 2013, there had been a dozen officer- involved shootings, most of which were fatal, in a three-year period dating back to 2010, according to departmental records. It Could Happen Here by JEFF THOMPSON NEWS Violence against police is on the rise. JEFF THOMPSON, Senior News Reporter. COMMENTS? news@upandcomingweekly. com. 910.484.6200. DONNIE BYERS, Contributing Writer. COM- MENTS? news@upandcomingweekly.com. 910.484.6200. Cape Fear Valley Residency Program a Big Investment by DONNIE BYERS Cape Fear Valley is set to grow again.