ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — The University of Missouri Kansas City broke ground on a new building in St. Joseph. It is the School of Medicine’s latest effort to address the severe physician shortage in rural Missouri.
“Our last medical school closed in 1914 here in St. Joe,” said Dr. Davin Turner, the associate dean of UMKC’s St. Joseph satellite campus. “People have to travel long distances to get that care and that’s the importance of this school — to basically grow our own.”
The new building will help expand the immersive experiences for medical students as they continue working closely with Mosaic Life Care Medical Center in rural medicine.
According to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, people who live in rural areas generally have less access to adequate health care than people residing in urban communities. Fewer hospitals and specialty doctors mean less preventative care and longer response times.
“My mom, she has vision problems and impairment, so I would have to make sure I can take off my work to drive her down there and stuff like that,” said Jordan Hervey, a resident in St. Jospeh. “And also, with like the gas prices and everything else on top of that.”
To make matters worse, between 2014 and 2020, a total of 15 Missouri hospitals closed, ten of them in rural counties.
According to Dr. Turner, several OBGYN programs have recently closed in rural hospitals near St. Joe, as well. As a doctor who has practiced in the area for over 20 years, he has felt and seen the impact firsthand.
“It does put strain on you as a primary care physician and even as the specialist. The specialist, we have to see large volume of patients just so that they have access,” said Dr. Turner.
The good news is groundbreakings like this, and future generations of doctors like Emma Smith give people in rural communities hope.
“I lived in Fulton, Missouri, for a little bit during undergraduate and that’s where I did some of my shadowing and clinical experience before I applied, and that’s where I started to recognize some of those barriers to care that patients in rural communities face,” said Smith.
Smith is a third-year medical student at UMKC School of Medicine. After finishing her graduate program, she wants to serve those small town communities that helped raise her.
“You really do experience — during your training — the differences between urban and rural care. And you become passionate about those communities that you trained with, and you learned with, and you grew with. Rural Missouri is my home," Smith said.
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