Starting this month, a small army of medical school grads from all over the world will descend on Grand Rapids to decide whether to practice medicine here -- and hopefully make it their home.
At stake during this marathon session of admission interviews to place medical students at Spectrum Health and St. Mary's Health Care systems is whether metro Grand Rapids will have enough doctors to treat its population over the next decade.
"This community is entering a growth phase," says Dr. Peter Coggan, president and CEO of the Grand Rapids Medical Education & Resource Center for Health Professions (GRMERC), which recruits and employs the residents. "We need to provide more physicians for the community."
A study issued three years ago by State University of New York concluded that Michigan could face a shortage of as many as 4,445 physicians by the year 2020, and Coggan says West Michigan alone could see a shortfall of 900 physicians by that time.
Despite the statistics, Coggan is optimistic about the future for metro Grand Rapids, thanks to the quality of local residency programs, affiliations with the new Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and the appeal of the area itself.
"Grand Rapids is a small city with a lot of activity," Coggan says. "The cultural environment is rich, the healthcare development is impressive. That's a powerful message to the students who come through to interview."
Contagious Enthusiasm
In a recent interview, Coggan greets with a pleasant smile, but kindly declines to shake hands due to his concern about spreading germs. He's been fighting a cold, but despite that fact, he appears to be the picture of health. His enthusiasm about the Grand Rapids health scene is the only contagious thing about him.
"There are very few places, if any, with this kind of excitement going on in health care, Coggan says. "It's just incredible."
Born in the city of Reading in the United Kingdom, Coggan practiced as a family physician, then served as director of medical education with Henry Ford Health System in Detroit and as assistant dean and professor of family medicine at Wayne State University before joining GRMERC in early 2007 as its top executive.
Coggan, 64, says his organization's mission is to ensure that residents meet the national medical education standards, which is a critical component of the local health care system. As a 501(c)3 non-profit entity, GRMERC essentially interviews and employs resident doctors and fellows who will work for several years within the Spectrum Health and Saint Mary's health systems.
Healthy Inside and Out
Coggan explains that initially, each hospital had separate residency placement programs, but collaboration was crucial as the West Michigan health scene expanded.
As a result, GRMERC was founded in 1998 to create one central entity that recruits candidates and ensures the students meet the requirements of their specialty board certification. The thought was to create a larger pool of residency openings that would then draw a greater number of medical students.
"We needed a shared community resource which would gain some economies of scale," Coggan says. "The hospitals go head to head in the market place, but as far as medical education is concerned, we look on it as a common community good." Now GRMERC oversees training at all the local Spectrum hospitals and Saint Mary's.
With a full-time staff of 40 and 290 residents currently serving residencies and fellowships at local hospitals, Coggan's hands are full.
The staff of GRMERC will interview more than 100 grads from November through January to fill spots in the residency and fellowship programs for the two health care systems serving metro Grand Rapids. In July, these new residents will begin their work, with the hope of making Grand Rapids a destination for health care.
To keep local hospitals healthy on the inside, the pressing issue is finding the best and the brightest medical graduates. GRMERC's overall mission is to enhance the quality of health care in the community by meeting the needs for physician and health professions education. "The standards of accreditation and re-accreditation are our priority," Coggan says.
Attracting the Best and Brightest
Last year Michigan was ranked fourth in the nation for the number of students enrolled in medical school and is ranked ninth in the nation for the number of residents and fellows being trained, but the state isn't able to keep its graduates. That is why GRMERC's hope is to attract residents who will not only come here to learn, but doctors who will stay here to practice.
"I'm excited about what Grand Rapids has become," says Dr. Matt Biersack, 29, who came back to Grand Rapids to complete his internal medicine residency through GRMERC after receiving his medical degree from Wayne State University. "I can remember much different days and I'm amazed now every time I'm out in downtown.
"We have something for everyone, yet with all these big city amenities, we're still rich in history and community."
Dr. Andrea Wolf came to Grand Rapids after obtaining her medical degree from Tufts University in Boston. Wolf, 29, who is in her final year of a general surgery residency, says she was initially drawn to Grand Rapids by the residency program, but fell in love with the city.
"I like the size of the city, and that it's surrounded by countryside," Wolf says. "There's lots of outdoor things to do, plus the downtown area and museums are great."
Both Biersack and Wolf say they intend to stay here to practice.
With a potential physician shortage looming in the next few years, GRMERC is reacting with a strategic plan to attract more residents. The plan includes graduate medical education, including expanding and starting new programs.
Coggan states that the expansion of existing educational programs and starting new programs is based on three factors: community need; where the talent is locally and which organization can champion a new program; and which programs fit best with the developing medical school.
He says the best draw for medical school grads is the quality of the area's residency programs. The national average for accreditation is 3.4 years, whereas the local average is 4.7 years, giving area residency programs more appeal.
Plus, all of the residency programs are connected to the new Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, and programs look better with a university affiliation attached to them. "Many people here don't realize, for a single medical school to develop two campuses in different communities is unusual, if not completely unique," Coggan says.
The Place to Be
Coggan believes Grand Rapids has great appeal to incoming residents. The upcoming visits of promising residents will hopefully yield enough future doctors who want to stay in the area, and make Grand Rapids a destination-known medical center.
GRMERC does its best to keep their well-trained doctors here. It works closely with the local hospitals' physician recruiting groups to encourage residents to look at job openings coming up in the community, and the organization looks at ways to support residents' families by creating opportunities for the spouses to get together.
With MSU College of Human Medicine and the Van Andel Institute backing the hospitals, Coggan is confident that the "partnership will be unbeatable." He calls the relationships between local hospitals, research facilities and learning institutions "synergistic" and says with a smile: "Isn't that Grand Rapids—that's how we do things here."
Bona Van Dis is a freelance writer living in Grand Rapids. When she isn't chasing her 4-year-old son, she's writing and editing for the Aquinas Magazine.
Photos:
Michigan State Secchia Center -College of Human Medicine
Dr. Peter Coggan, president and CEO of the Grand Rapids Medical Education & Resource Center for Health Professions (GRMERC) -Courtesy Photo
Blodgett Hospital Patient Care Addition
Spectrum Health Lemmen-Holton Cancer Pavilion
Michigan State Secchia Center -College of Human Medicine
Helen DeVos Children's Hospital
The Hauenstein Center, Saint Mary's Healthcare
Photographs by Brian Kelly -All Rights Reserved