East Carolina University…Tomorrow starts here.

2005 General Assembly Priority 3

Issue: Identify Funding for a Family Medicine Center at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University

Desired Outcomes:

Identify $40 million in State funds to replace the current aging Family Practice facility to support training of rural and family physicians and for improving access to health care for underserved communities.

Background:

Constructed in 1975, the current Eastern Carolina Family Medicine Center has been the training home for more than 250 family doctors, most of whom practice in North Carolina.

• In any accredited residency training program for Family Medicine, the “Center” is the centerpiece. The “Center” is as important to the training of Family Physicians as state-of-the-art operating rooms are to the training of surgeons.

• The Eastern Carolina Family Medicine Center is out-dated and overcrowded. This means that our Department of Family Medicine can no longer effectively compete in the recruitment of residents, fellows, and faculty.

Inadequate facilities represent a challenge to delivery of quality care for our citizenry.

• States with the highest number of “general practitioners” per 1000 patients rank significantly higher, both in terms of quality and cost-effectiveness of healthcare.

• Without a new Family Medicine Center at the Brody School of Medicine, a population of people with some of the worst health indicators in the nation is going to be even more threatened.

• Family physicians receive four years of medical school education followed by a minimum of three years of specialty training. Students who are trained in a state-of-the-art facility, motivated by the full scope and range of responsibilities the challenging discipline demands, and strongly mentored in such an environment are much more likely to become family physicians and remain in North Carolina.

The North Carolina General Assembly founded the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, with a stated mission to train Primary Care (Family Care) Physicians.

• Over 75% of medical school graduates who complete their residency training in Family Medicine at our affiliated major teaching hospital (Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville, under the direct supervision of the medical school faculty) remain in North Carolina to practice medicine.

• The vast majority provides critically needed care in rural and underserved communities.