Eggs & Issues panel discusses local medical community (2024)

Editor's note: This is one in a series of articles from the Eggs & Issues Breakfast sponsored by the Moultrie-Colquitt County Chamber of Commerce Aug. 20 at Southern Regional Technical College.

MOULTRIE — Leaders in the medical community served on a panel at the Moultrie-Colquitt County Chamber of Commerce’s annul Eggs & Issues event, voicing workforce development as their primary concern.

Dr. Matthew Clifton, vice president of ancillary services at Colquitt Regional Medical Center, moderated the panel, which included Lissa Murphy, department chair at PCOM; Dr. Michael Brown, chief medical officer at Colquitt Regional Medical Center; R.J. Hurn, chief executive officer of Georgia Pines; and Tonya Bozeman, director of the Colquitt County Health Department.

The first question that Clifton asked was, “What initiatives are each of your organizations currently working on to meet the community’s healthcare needs?”

Murphy answered that it was pretty obvious for the medical college because they were trying to train future doctors.

She went on to say, “We have 59 students per class and we’re trying to expand the number of students in that class. We’ve currently applied and waiting to hear when we’ll be able to expand.”

She said that 60% of the student body was from Georgia and they would really like to retain them in rural Georgia. She also asked that the audience be hospitable to the medical students when they saw them.

“It’s difficult to attract physicians to the rural part of the South and we would like for them to see what the South is all about,” Murphy said. “If you see them, take them to a football game.”

Hurn said one of the things they have done was to bring a co-responder program to the community and the next thing that they were trying to do was a transportation pilot program. It would take the burden off of law enforcement officers, he said, from traveling out of the county to deliver clients to emergency receiving facilities.

“We’re trying to reach into the law enforcement population where we feel like some of the clients that we serve are being housed in the jail when they could be housed somewhere else,” he also said.

Bozeman said the health department offers a variety of services including women’s health services and family planning, HIV testing, classes for expecting mothers and immunizations to all age groups.

“If an individual cannot afford the services, we do work with them,” she said. “A lot of our services are at no cost.”

Brown replied, “At Colquitt Regional, one of the things that my boss, Jim Matney, would say is ‘See a need, fill a need.’ And whatever is needed in our community is something that we must bring to make sure that we’re providing the best quality care for our community.”

He went on to say that, eight years ago, that was bringing a family medicine residency program in and he thanked the state legislators for giving the money to get the program going. Three years ago, he said, they added a psychiatry residency program to help out with mental health needs.

“I think most of us know and recognize [that] as something really, really needed,” he added.

Brown said that, moving forward, the hospital is looking at obstetrics, making sure that they are doing great for maternal health and pre-natal care. He also said that they were looking at partnering with other institutions to get OB residents.

“I think it really is seeing what does the community need, where are we lacking and moving from there,” he said.

The next question asked by Clifton was, “Are there any ways that y’all’s agencies are working together to kind of work to fill those gaps and fill those needs for the community?”

Hurn answered first with, “I know that, from my perspective, we use PCOM and we use Colquitt Regional where students come in and they do residencies.”

He went on to say that the students have visits with Georgia Pine’s clients, so they were partnering with that opportunity.

Murphy followed up on Hurn’s answer with, “So, we do have our students intertwined with the hospital and the mental health facility, here and in other communities, as well.”

Bozeman said that the health department was also interacting with the hospital and other local facilities and added that, “With Southern Regional we let nurses come and do rotations with us and we assist whenever we can.”

Brown said, “One of our biggest issues that we’re having, and a very good problem in a growing rural community, is growth. And so we have to absolutely partner with many entities to make sure that we’re doing well.”

He also said that part of that was an infrastructure problem but a lot of that was making sure that they were doing everything for workforce management and with that, he said, they rely heavily on SRTC.

“So many of our clinical and non-clinical team members come in through the pipeline from this institution,” he said. “Same thing with PCOM and, so far, what I’ve seen from the medical students at PCOM is nothing short of amazing.”

Hurn said, “I would like to add that anything you can do to keep these students to stay in this area, would be great. Make them feel welcome. I cannot say that more. We need those psychiatrists.”

Also building on Hurn’s statement, Clifton said there was a statistic in healthcare that said that more than 70% of students stay within 55 miles of where they trained.

“So the importance of bringing these programs locally is really making a huge impact in our area. We appreciate the partnership of all of y’all,” he said.

He then asked the panel to tell a little bit about the challenges that their organizations were facing right now.

Murphy said that healthcare staffing was an issue on all levels. From CNAs to physicians, she said, there was a shortage out there.

She said, over the years, they’ve been talking about nursing shortages and have had round table talks, workshops and other things to try and figure out what to do to recruit and retain more nurses.

She said that they were hoping that PCOM could provide physicians but they support any initiative to get healthcare workers into the system.

“And, obviously, there are financial challenges. Healthcare can be more expensive,” she said and added that staffing needs contributed to that.

Hurn said that Murphy had stolen what he was going to say, which brought laughter from the audience.

“Access to care. And part of it is that we’ve a shortage in my field. Stigma is another thing that we have to combat as a challenge. The child and adolescent mental health crisis is getting worse. Suicide rates are rising among them,” he said.

He also said that every panel that had come up to speak had said finding that workforce was very important.

“For us, staffing is one of our major issues at the health department. Being able to provide all the services that’s needed in our community but we are working towards being able to provide all services, even though we are short of staff,” said Bozeman.

Brown said, “I think I’m gonna echo the concerns of the three of you guys in terms of workforce development. We are over 1,600 team members. That’s 50% greater than what we had ten years ago and really continuing to grow.”

He also said that, certainly, they had to become more competitive, ensuring that they’re meeting inflation in terms of salaries.

“But to me ensuring that we have workforce is making sure that our team members at our hospital are doing something that’s meaningful, making sure that they have a voice in the organization, making sure that they have the tools that they need to work successfully. And, again, to me, it’s most important that they feel that they are a part of something larger,” he said.

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