Dealing with the shortage of rural physicians

Abstract: Natalie King, MD, a family medicine practitioner, trained in Toledo, Ohio, an inner-city environment less than two hours away from the family farm where she grew up. That residency training prepared her to work in under-resourced urban areas. But when she was offered a job at a community health clinic in Jellico, Tennessee—population 2,217—she didn’t hesitate. Shannon Brownlee, MSc, senior vice president of the Lown Institute, a non-profit organization working to create a more equitable healthcare system, says that in an age of mergers and acquisitions, she would like to see more health systems making greater investments in their rural facilities.