Investment in a rural residency program: a case study

Rural hospitals have used numerous strategies over the past several decades to recruit and retain physicians. These have included providing physicians economic incentives, immigration status, professional and technical support and establishing rural training tracks (RTT) in family practice residency programs. This paper presents the experience of an isolated rural region in southwestern New York state that has employed each of these strategies in the past decade. Success as measured by the change in size of the medical staff, hospital operating margins, admissions and employment occurred only after the emphasis changed from meeting hospital needs to physician needs. Pivotal to this strategy was the nurturing and development of an RTT. Investment in the residency program required strong leadership to ensure the political, financial and operational commitment of its affiliated hospital. In addition, the RTT required an affiliation with a financially viable, full-service hospital, a strong on-site chief of service, family physicians who performed cesarean sections, midlevel providers and practitioners dedicated to the mission of teaching.