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Carolyn Rose

Carolyn Rose is VISTA’s Vice President of Marketing and Strategy and a 20-year veteran of the locum tenens industry, which can only mean she started working at about age nine.

 

Author Archive

 

Match results show increased interest in primary care

Friday, March 18th, 2011

Even though physicians from just about every medical specialty can work on a locum tenens basis, we have a soft spot for primary care at VISTA. Why? Because that’s where it all began. The locum tenens industry in the US grew out of the need for support and back up coverage for primary care physicians in rural areas.

 The National Resident Matching Program results released yesterday brought welcome news that not only were a record number of medical residency positions (PDF) offered this year, but more new doctors showed an interest in primary-care training programs.

 Here are some numbers:

  • A total of 26,158 residency positions, including 12,421 first-year and 2,737 second-year positions were offered.
  • This was a 2.5% increase over last year’s 25,520 slots.
  • The increase included 112 more internal-medicine positions, 100 more family-medicine slots, 51 more emergency medicine positions, 45 more for anesthesiology, and 38 more for neurology.
  • More than 95% of the first-year residency positions were filled.
  • 94.4% of family-medicine positions (2,555) were filled this year, versus 91.4% (2,384) filled last year.
  • 5,065 internal medicine slots were filled this year, versus 4,947 in 2010.
  • The number of applicants from U.S. schools increased 11.3% for family medicine and 8% for internal medicine.

Posted in Industry Updates |

 

When everything is possible

Friday, December 17th, 2010

My 17-year-old daughter is throwing the dice. With much angst and inspiration. With as much guidance and support as we can work in. But she’s still throwing the dice on her future. She is filling out college applications.                    

Whether your exposure to the process is recent or a distant memory, you will no doubt recall the feeling that everything is possible and nothing is for sure. 

The essays for The Common Application and for the supplements required for individual schools have led to some wonderful conversations around our dinner (lunch, breakfast, coffee) table. Here are just a few of the prompts compiled by her high school counselors that she has considered:

  • For some, it’s politics or sports or reading.  For others it may be researching solar power fuel cells or arranging hip hop mash-ups. What makes you tick? (Tufts)
  • You have just finished shooting a roll of film. As you go to develop the film, the local merchant offers to make a postcard of one of your photos. Describe the photo, why you selected it and write a brief note to your friends back home. (University of the Pacific)
  • You have just completed your 300-page autobiography. Please submit page 217. (University of Pennsylvania)
  • Tell one story about yourself that would best provide us, either directly or indirectly, with an insight into the kind of person you are. For example, the story can simply relate a personal experience, or a humorous anecdote; it can tell about an especially significant academic encounter or about an unusual test of character. The possibilities are unlimited (well, almost so). You choose. Just relax and write it. (Princeton)

I am delighted, surprised, confused, awestruck by the answers and themes she has come up with. And I’m so proud that she wants to bounce them off of her father and me before disappearing into her room with her laptop.

I defy anyone to witness this process and NOT want to delve into his or her own psyche.

At VISTA we always see a spike in inquiries about locum tenens jobs and new permanent physician jobs right after the holidays. We call it the New Year’s Resolution Physician Job Search. If you are currently in the ranks of physicians considering a change, or if you could be, or should be, or want to be, here’s hoping that you find a little time in the next few weeks to ponder a Big Question. Whether you craft an essay, make notes on an envelope, talk it through with your dog, or spark a raging debate with your best friends, it’s an amazing way to discover yourself and what really matters to you as you move into a new chapter in life. Take it from a 17-year-old, and her mother.

Posted in VISTA Lore |

 

AAAMC Releases Post-Healthcare-Reform Physician Shortage Estimates

Tuesday, October 5th, 2010

Locum tenens can be part of the solution

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Center for Workforce Studies has released new physician shortage estimates that are 50 percent worse than anticipated before health care reform legislation was passed.

The United States, like most of the world, is already facing a critical physician shortage. The problem will intensify as 32 million Americans acquire health care coverage, and an additional 36 million aging Baby Boomers qualify for Medicare.

Some key findings of the study include:

• Between now and 2015, the year after health care reforms take effect, the shortage of doctors across all specialties will quadruple. Previous projections showed a shortage of 39,600 doctors in 2015, current estimates bring that number to almost 63,000. The shortage will intensify through 2025.

• Non-primary care specialists will also be in short supply. In 2015, the United States will be short 33,100 physicians in specialties like cardiology, oncology, and emergency medicine.

• Our aging population will simultaneously, and dramatically, increase demand for care. The U.S. Census Bureau projects a 36 percent increase in the number of Americans over age 65. And nearly one-third of all physicians are expected to retire in the next decade.

• The AAMC has lobbied hard to expand the physician training pipeline. The number of medical school students has increased, and will add 7,000 more graduates every year over the next decade. However, the AAMC warns that unless Congress supports at least a 15 percent increase in residency training slots (adding another 4,000 physicians a year to the pipeline), access to health care will be out of reach for many Americans.

The AAMC points out that, “The shortfall in the number of physicians will affect everyone, but the impact will be most severe on vulnerable and underserved populations. These groups include the approximately 20 percent of Americans who live in rural or inner-city locations designated as health professional shortage areas.”1

 Locum tenens physicians have traditionally served “vulnerable and underserved populations.”If a significant percentage of physicians nearing retirement age opt for part-time, flexible locum tenens work instead, agencies like VISTA can help ease the burden and get doctors where they are needed most.

 1http://www.aamc.org/newsroom/presskits/mdShortage1.pdf

 

 

 

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Posted in Stories from VISTA Physicians |

 

Report on growing rural primary care shortage lists locum tenens as part of solution

Thursday, September 16th, 2010

The WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho) Rural Health Research Center recently released a report on The Future of Family Medicine and Implications for Rural Primary Care Physician Supply.  The study, written by Roger Rosenblatt, MD, MPH, and colleagues at the University of Washington School of Medicine, examines trends in specialty choice among new physicians, the rural primary care physician shortage, and the changing dynamics of rural health care delivery. It includes a list of initiatives and policy efforts that will help ease the shortage of primary care physicians in rural areas, and that list includes providing locum tenens support to protect rural physicians from burnout and isolation.

Here’s a quick rundown of the study. To read the entire document, go to http://depts.washington.edu/uwrhrc/uploads/RHRC_FR125_Rosenblatt.pdf .  

  • Rural locations rely heavily on family physicians who account for about half of all rural physicians in large rural areas and about two thirds in smaller and more isolated areas.
  • There has been a sharp decline in the proportion of U.S. medical graduates choosing family medicine over the last decade, with most family medicine residency positions filled by students who graduated from medical schools outside of the United States.
  • The proportion of students choosing family medicine careers will likely remain far below the numbers required to replace rural and urban family physicians leaving the field because of death or retirement.
  • The pipeline to attract physicians to rural primary care is dysfunctional; rural youth are not recruited to medical school; women, who make up an increasing percentage of physicians, and international medical graduates, are not attracted to rural living.

The report details several private efforts and federal and state policy options that could help increase and sustain the number of family physicians in rural practice including:

  • Making it more attractive and financially viable for physicians to practice in rural areas through programs such as improved Medicaid reimbursement, practice development subsidies, tax credits for rural/underserved practice, locum tenens support, malpractice immunity for free care, payment bonuses, subsidies for electronic health records, and Medicaid reimbursement of telemedicine.
  • Increasing the number of medical students recruited from rural communities by providing education and support that would prepare them for medical careers.
  • Changing medical school curriculum and admission policies to admit more students from rural backgrounds, providing financial support and helping disadvantaged students get into medical school.
  • Providing financial support for residency programs that train rural physicians through rural practice training tracks, and focusing on the skills required to succeed in rural practice.

It’s rewarding to see locum tenens recognized as part of the solution to the shortage of rural primary care physicians because, in fact, the locum tenens industry in the US was established to provide respite to rural providers.

In 1976, Therus Kolff, MD, MPH, and colleagues at the Health Systems Research Institute, a non-profit formed by the University of Utah, the Intermountain Regional Medical Program, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation set out to develop innovative solutions to rural healthcare challenges. Dr. Kolff led a team that managed 22 clinics and five hospitals in nine western states and served as team leader for Yellowstone National Park Medical Services.

This team realized that their physicians were at risk of quick burnout because they were on call essentially all the time and never felt they could get away from their practices. They decided they needed a “circuit rider” to provide coverage and give these doctors time off with the peace of mind that their patients would be cared for and their practices managed responsibly. Dr. Kolff went on to establish the first commercial locum tenens company in 1979, and is currently a medical director for VISTA Staffing Solutions.

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Posted in Industry Updates |

 

Pack Your Bags! The who, why, and how of locum tenens work

Monday, April 5th, 2010

A VISTA medical director and two locum tenens physicians featured in Minnesota Physician

Therus Kolff, MD, MPH, one of VISTA’s medical directors, penned the cover story for the March issue of Minnesota Physician. The article explains the nuts and bolts of locum tenens work and features two physicians who work locum tenens assignments in Minnesota through VISTA.

“The locum tenens industry in the United States was, quite literally, born of necessity,” Therus writes in the article, and he should know. He established the first locum tenens company in the nation in 1979 after a stint with a nonprofit organization that was formed to develop innovative solutions to rural health care issues.

Click here to read the entire locum tenens story, or visit the Minnesota Physician website.

Posted in VISTA Lore |