The Good Samaritan Foundation is doing its part to help the hospital recruit new physicians with local ties.
Gary Hackney, foundation director, announced that beginning in August the organization will award financial assistance each year to medical students who are graduates a Knox County high school and are willing to come back and work at Good Samaritan Hospital for at least four years upon completing their residencies.
Hackney called it “another recruitment tool” the foundation can use not only to attract good, young physicians but also to bring locals back home.
“It's a give and take. That's the way I like to describe it,” Hackney said of the new program. “In signing this contract, they say, 'Yeah, I'll come back home and give you four years of practice.
“But they've got to be really sure, because they are making a commitment.”
Hackney said he hopes to begin taking the first round of applications next month. A committee of foundation board members as well as a medical practitioner from the hospital will review and score each one before choosing the recipients.
Hackney said the foundation hasn't yet announced just how much money has been allotted for this particular program. How much is awarded, he said, will depend totally on how many applicants the foundation receives.
“All of that is still to be determined,” he said. “If we just have two (recipients) obviously we'd be able to give those two more of a stipend than if we had eight.
“Our foundation board will have to make that final decision.”
Hackney said the pot of money from which the scholarship money will come is what the foundation typically gives to the hospital at the end of each year. With that additional money, Hackney said the hospital's board of governors has traditionally paid for a new piece of equipment or, perhaps, set it aside for a rainy day.
“But this year, we're going to keep that money and use it to establish this fund,” Hackney said.
A federal law known as the “Stark Law” prohibits the hospital from using its own revenue sources to lure young medical students back home.
The foundation, however, can, Hackney said.
“We want our good, bright, local talent to choose to come back home,” he said, “and are hopeful that this program is a way for us to do that.”
Only those local high school graduates enrolled in medical school at the time of their application will be eligible for the financial assistance, Hackney said. The selection committee will then look at their academic records, transcripts as well as their medical field of study before determining who will receive a portion of the money.
Chosen applicants will then be awarded a monthly stipend — Hackney used the example of $1,000 per month, although he said amounts will vary — that will extend the full length of their time spent in medical school.
The stipends will cease, he said, once a recipient enters residency and begins receiving a salary.
The recipient must then come back to GSH to work following completion of his or her residency program, and should they have a change of heart and wish to work elsewhere, the money will have to be repaid to the foundation.
“They can use it for living expenses, books, tuition or even save it for later to help pay off their student loans, whatever their need might be,” Hackney said. “But if they change their minds, there is already a system in place for them to pay that money back.”
Hackney said the program will be promoted through the foundation as well as the hospital's physician recruitment office.