ISSUE:  MEDICAL STUDENT CLASS SIZE EXPANSION – ECU BRODY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE        

DESIRED OUTCOME:   East Carolina University (ECU) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are requesting $2 million of recurring funding in FY 2010 and an additional $2 million of recurring funding in FY 2011 to expand the medical student class size at both state-sponsored medical schools to increase the number of physicians in North Carolina. The funds will be split evenly between the two medical schools. The class size at the Brody School of Medicine (BSOM) would increase from 80 to 120 students per year.

OUR CHALLENGE:   The school was founded nearly 40 years ago with the promise to increase the number of physicians practicing in the state. Since that time, over 1770 physicians have graduated, of which 59% have stayed in the state. Even with the physician graduates from the BSOM, there remains a shortage of physicians   in the state, and the shortage is predicted to rise to crisis levels in the next ten years.

North Carolina needs more physicians, especially in rural and inner city areas. Some specialties are in especially short supply in North Carolina:  psychiatry, general surgery and providers that deliver babies. More primary care providers and community-based practices are needed, and the current growth of providers will not keep pace with the state’s growing healthcare needs.

The 2005 North Carolina Health Professions Data Book stated that eight of the ten counties in the state with the smallest ratio of primary care physicians per 10,000 population were in eastern North Carolina.

FACING THE FACTS:   The BSOM is in an excellent position to help meet the need to increase the number of physicians providing care for the people of North Carolina. The following facts show how BSOM leads all the other medical schools in North Carolina:

• For physicians who graduated from BSOM and did their residency training with Pitt County Memorial Hospital (PCMH), 75% remain in the state to practice medicine.
• 34% of BSOM graduates practice primary care in North Carolina.
• 28% of BSOM graduates practice in rural North Carolina.
• In 2007, the BSOM graduating class had the highest percentage (28%) of black students of all the medical schools in the state.
• The American Academy of Family Physicians ranked BSOM #2 in the nation for the percentage of graduates entering family medicine training.

THE BOTTOM LINE:The current physician shortage will not be resolved without decisive action to increase the number of physicians graduating from state-sponsored medical schools. The faculty at BSOM are enthusiastic about increasing the medical student class size from 80 to 120, but cannot do so without careful planning and preparation. The proper communities need to be selected for clinical education sites. A new medical education building will be required. The national accreditation will need to be updated. To continue to move in the right direction, East Carolina University (ECU) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are requesting $2 million of recurring funding in FY 2010 and an additional $2 million of recurring funding in FY 2011.