Bringing good physicians to a community of Crawfordsville’s size has proved to be a challenge, so hospital officials are trying to attract them before they even become licensed physicians.
A partnership with Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine, which recently became the second medical school in the state, is currently in the works for Franciscan St. Elizabeth Health–Crawfordsville. Though talks are just in their beginning stages, the partnership would result in Marian sending over medical students to spend a month with local family physicians.
“I think we all know we need more family physicians out in communities,” said Executive Medical Director Tim Tanselle. “I’m hopeful that that will help us be able to recruit some of these people to become part of our community, to live here and to be part of Crawfordsville and Montgomery County. I’m pretty excited about that.”
Charles Henley is the Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs for the Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine. This is only the third year the medical school has been open, so he is really looking forward to what this partnership could offer the students.
Henley said the purpose of the partnership would be to give students an orientation to primary care before they start their residencies. For a month, students would be able to shadow physicians specializing in family medicine: see what they do, work directly with the doctors, see where and how they live and get out into the community.
“I think it really offers training in what you might call rural medicine,” Tanselle said.
“Those of us who have lived here know that we’re not as rural as people who don’t live here think we are. So I think letting people come and out and actually be a part of the community, to see how we deliver care, to see what we can do in our emergency room or in radiology ... I think that’s a really important thing for us to do.”
“We think the community of Crawfordsville is a well-educated community — a sophisticated community,” Henley said. “It’s a great choice for our students to go to Crawfordsville.”
The problem Tanselle said he’s experienced with recruiting family medicine physicians has been that many of them, though they want to practice in Crawfordsville or Montgomery County, they don’t want to live here.
“It’s challenging. It really is,” Tanselle said. “I want to bring the right person who’s the right fit with the hope that, if I do that, they’re going to be happy with their practice. They’re going to be happy with their partners. They’re going to be happy with their community.”
Hanley said that a lot of the students in the College of Osteopathic Medicine come from smaller towns, so even though they might complete their residency at a much larger hospital in a much larger town, he doesn’t think it will be hard for them to consider coming to a smaller community.
And the goal of this partnership is to make sure these soon-to-be-physicians realize all of the capabilities and opportunities that Franciscan St. Elizabeth Health – Crawfordsville and its surrounding community offer.
“If we do this right,” Hanley said, “they’ll remember that.”