CityView Magazine

CityViewNC.com | 55 F E A T U R E Physicians of the Future BY ERIN PESUT Campbell University's Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine and Cape Fear Valley Health have teamed up to do something incredible. C ape Fear Valley Health, the eighth largest health system in North Carolina, has 1,000,000 patient visits per year. ey rank among the top 200 health systems nationally and among the top 100 busiest Emergency Departments. And yet, CEO at Cape Fear Valley Health Mike Nagowski said, "If there's a hot spot of physician shortage, it's here in North Carolina." North Carolina ranks 34 out of 50 in primary care providers per capita. Surprisingly, nearly 25 percent of North Carolina counties do not even have an OB/GYN specialist or a general surgeon, which means most patients are traveling for the care they need. Another problem is increasing competition for new doctors, who oen choose to practice in larger, more metropolitan areas. John Kauffman, dean at Campbell University's Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine, called some areas of North Carolina a "doctor desert." Well, Campbell University's Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine and Cape Fear Valley Health have teamed up to do something incredible. Sowing Seeds of Change e Cape Fear Valley Health System Residency Program was just a seed in a conversation—a simple idea—back in 2010. Campbell University, the largest private school in North Carolina which also happens to have the largest medical school in the state, would team up with Cape Fear Valley to train the best and brightest doctors and encourage them to stay once they've become physicians to assist in providing care in our local and more rural communities. e newly launched medical residency program received over 1,300 applications and over 200 interviews were held for 32 coveted spots in General Surgery, Emergency Medicine, OB/GYN, Internal Medicine, and Transitional Year. Psychiatry and Pediatrics are currently undergoing accreditation review and are expected to begin in the summer of 2018. Meeting the Residents On August 9, 2017, I stopped by the Cape Fear Valley Health Residency Program Launch in the Cape Fear Valley Rehabilitation Center Auditorium to meet the young doctors who will help shape the future of health care in our area. Standing at the podium, Dr. Don Maharty, the vice president of Medical Education at Cape Fear Valley Health, called the event "a landmark day in this region." He announced the "Herculean effect" that it took to bring a collaboration of this magnitude to fruition, noting that this single day of celebration would create ripples that would continue to affect our community for months and years to come. e impact of training these doctors here in a health system that so desperately needs them is a big deal. e mode of thinking is that 50% of residents will stay and continue to live where they received their medical training, so as 500 people go through this residency program, about 250 of them will stay and put down roots for their practice. With a minor league baseball team on its way, the low cost of living, the asset of diversity, and a big city with a small-town feel which happens to be close to

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