Hoping to stop a significant shortage of primary care physicians, Danbury Hospital has received a $3.3 million federal grant to strengthen its new primary care residency program.
“We are committed to the mission of training the next generation of primary care physicians because expanding the primary care work force is a national priority,” said Ramin Ahmadi, director of medical education and research at Danbury Hospital.
The new federal investment brings the recent federal dollars put into the hospital”™s physician work force to $4.5 million. Earlier this month Danbury Hospital received a five-year, $1.2 million grant to establish an innovative primary care residency program that focuses on the “patient-centered medical home” model and encourages primary care physicians to care for the underserved. The program will include 18 candidates with six primary care physicians graduating each year. Ahmadi said the grant covers the cost of developing a curriculum and building the infrastructure to support a residency program.
“As a nation, we must begin training additional primary care physicians now in order to address this looming crisis,” said John Murphy, president and CEO at Danbury Hospital. “Otherwise, millions of Americans with health insurance will not be able to find a primary care physician.”
Murphy said the federal dollars come at a time when the nation faces a critical shortage of primary care physicians that will worsen by 2015, when 32 million Americans who are currently uninsured will have access to health insurance coverage as a result of the Obama administration”™s passing health care reform.
“The new grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under the Affordable Care Act is designed to strengthen the primary care work force and provide community-based prevention,” said Murphy.
Also a five-year grant, the money will cover operational costs and other substantial expenses of training primary care physicians at Danbury Hospital. Murphy said it would lift a substantial financial burden from the hospital.
The grant is the latest in a string of incentives from the federal government to support medical institutions committed to expanding the primary care work force. Hospitals currently receive federal reimbursement for training physicians in sub-specialties, but not in primary care. Experts expect the reimbursement formula to change as the nation focuses on preventive care and primary care as a way to effectively and economically deliver high-quality care.
