Welcome to News in Brief
Welcome to the August issue of News in Brief. This newsletter is published bi-monthly to feature what is happening in Rural Health Education and Services at the KU Medical Center. For more information contact Joyce Tibbals at jtibbals@kumc.edu.
2009 Rural Kansas Photography Contest
The 2009 Rural Kansas Photography Contest is presented by RHES, University of Kansas Medical Center. The purpose is to work with Kansans across the state to produce a collection of photographic images to help promote Kansas as a great place for health care providers to live, work, and play. Winning photos will be published and prizes will be awarded. Photographs will be accepted July 6 – Sept. 11. Download an entry form today.
Save-the-Date for Kansas Career Opportunities
The Kansas Career Opportunities events will be held at the KU School of Medicine - Wichita on Oct. 08, 2009, and KU Medical Center in Kansas City on Oct. 29, 2009. Both career fairs are excellent opportunities for organizations to meet resident physician, medical, nursing and allied health students and health care professionals who are seeking employment opportunities. If you would like to exhibit at either event, register here. If you would like to attend either event, register here.
Kansas Recruitment Center Makes Placements
The Kansas Recruitment Center (KRC) is pleased to announce a new placement for rural Kansas!
Cheryl Giles, MD, family physician, joined the team at Flint Hills Community Health Center, Emporia, Kan. in July. Dr. Giles is a University of Kansas School of Medicine graduate. She enjoys getting to work with an awesome team in a compassionate environment at the Flint Hills Community Health Center.
Kansas Bridging Plan Now Accepting Applications
Loan forgiveness is offered to residents in family medicine, general internal medicine, general pediatrics, or medicine/pediatrics residency programs in Kansas through the Kansas Bridging Plan. Applications are now being accepted for the program. Resident physicians who participate in the Kansas Bridging Plan agree to practice medicine full-time in a rural Kansas community for 36 continuous months upon completion of their residency training program in exchange for loan forgiveness. Applications are taken from July 1 to December 31 each year. Apply here.
Rural Health Education and Services Busy Visiting Residency Programs
In an effort to keep residents informed on Rural Health Education and Services programs, Rural Health staff has begun making annual visits to residents in Kansas City, Wichita, and Salina. The visits are designed to increase the residents' awareness and understanding of Rural Health programs. To date, the Rural Health staff has visited residents in the Wesley Pediatric residency program, Wichita, Kan. For additional information regarding residency visits, please contact Tyler Doyle, tdoyle@kumc.edu.
Kansas Locum Tenens and Kansas Medical Resource Report Coverage
The Kansas Locum Tenens (KLT) Program has been successful in providing over 293 days of coverage for physicians in rural Kansas for fiscal year 2009! KLT is a program designed to provide temporary coverage for rural physicians in family medicine, general internal medicine, and pediatrics. The Kansas Medical Resource (KMR) Program has been successful in providing over 46.5 days of coverage for primary care and over 50 days of other specialty care for fiscal year 2009! KMR is a program designed to provide temporary medical coverage to physicians in rural communities for general surgery, psychiatry, radiation oncology, anesthesiology, obstetrics/gynecology, family medicine, general internal medicine, general pediatrics, and other health care specialties. For more information about KLT or KMR contact Andee Ellis, aellis2@kumc.edu.
RHES Director Makes a Trip to Washington DC
Kansas was well represented last week at the Healthcare Workforce Crisis: A Summit on the Future of Primary Care in Rural and Urban American that took place in Washington, DC.
Sponsored by the Health Resources and Services Administration, leaders from across the country gathered to discuss primary care workforce trends, health care reform, and strategies to overcome primary care provider shortages. The summit was designed for wide-ranging stakeholders including health care organizations, associations, providers, state officials, and academic health centers interested in the primary health care workforce in rural and urban communities.
RHES Invites Kansans to Visit Rural Health Blog
Read the RHES blog for additional information about rural health in Kansas. The blog is located at www.ruralhealtheducationandservices.blogspot.com. In addition, RHES has entered the world of social networking with our new Facebook page. Become a fan by searching for us. Our page will be another opportunity to update fans on happenings and post pictures of various events.
Kansas Connections is Going Paperless
Kansas Connections will be going paperless. The Summer 2009 issue of Kansas Connections is the last printed issue. The publication will be available online for viewing, in an easy-to-print format. If you would like to sign up to receive e-mail alerts four times a year, letting you know when the newest issue is available, please visit www.ruralhealth.kumc.edu and click the Kansas Connections drop-down menu.
RHES Hosts Appreciation Lunch for Residency Coordinators
Resident physicians are very busy people. In order make a greater connection with the residents here in Wichita, we have found that it is very helpful to work with their residency coordinators. The residency coordinator is often the person the residents turn to, keeping them in the know, when it comes to scheduling, important paper work, available programs and so much more.
On August 18, Rural Health hosted a lunch at the Riverside Cup of Tea for the Wichita residency coordinators. This event has been held for the past three years and is our opportunity to say “thank you” to the coordinators for their support of the Rural Health programs. The lunch not only allows us to show our appreciation but gives the coordinators an opportunity to visit with other coordinators and our staff. Each year we look forward to this event.
