Doctor's Day 2021 - Elmore County

We need our doctors and healthcare staff more than ever.

YOU ARE APPRECIATED! March 31, 2021 A special supplement to The Wetumpka Herlad and Tallassee Tribune

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Doctors’ Day 2021

Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Doctors serve patients in extraordinary pandemic circumstances

By JACOB HOLMES For Tallapoosa Publishers

Doctors already fulfill a heroic role, but the Covid-19 pandemic has put them front and center.

This Doctors’ Day comes almost a year to the day from the start of the pandemic in the U.S. Elmore Community Hospital hospitalist Dr. Melissa Thompson said it has a been a hard but rewarding journey for doctors in the year since.

“We admitted our first COVID patient March 29, 2020,” Thompson said. “We admitted seven patients from a local nursing home. Over the course of the next four months, we took care of more than 100 nursing home patients. Nursing homes were very hard-hit and didn’t have a plan to quarantine patients; they had to find places to keep patients.”

Elmore Community Hospital had been preparing for weeks prior. After taking care of the nursing home patients, Thompson said they didn’t have a strong community impact from the virus until the fall.

“Immediately, nobody could visit,” Thompson said. “No family members or friends could come to see their patients. Our sweet little patients hadn’t seen any family for almost a month and then were transferred to an unfamiliar hospital. That was really hard, not only on them, but also on the staff. We knew how sad and depressed they were.”

With the challenges of the pandemic, nurses and doctors took extra measures to help patients.

“What (Covid-19) did is it made us think outside the box and how to take care of the patients’ medical needs and their emotional needs,” Thompson said.

“On Mother’s Day, one nurse went out and bought balloons and flowers for every Covid-19 patient that was a mom.

“One person at the hospital was in charge of FaceTiming, setting up times to go in with patients and FaceTime; at least there was communication there. We had birthday parties outside of windows. One time on a Sunday, we probably had 35 people outside the window of this patient.”

Because of how long patients were hospitalized, the physicians really became familiar with them.

Submitted / Tallapoosa Publishers

Dr. Melissa Thompson, Elmore Community Hospital hospitalist, explained the great lengths doctors went to in order to serve patients during a pandemic.

“The average length of stay was between 21 and 28 days, so we really knew these patients,” Thompson said.

“That scene you always see on TV with patients being wheeled out with

people lining the halls, that’s really what it was like.”

During all of this, the doctors were scrambling to find out the latest information on a virus that had little

research to go on.

“The biggest challenge was that we did not know what we were working with, where the recommended treatment changed three times and there was no central place to really get information,” Thompson said. “What’s the best way to treat them? With steroids? Or is that harmful? We were truly learning as we went along. There was no FDA-approved anything so you were truly doing what was best for the patient without harm, so it was very challenging.”

With no ICU, Thompson said the hospital felt the strain and pressure of having nowhere to send patients whose conditions worsened.

“Some people within a 12-hour period of time would be on a ventilator,” Thompson said. “We did not have an ICU or pulmonologist. We had a plan but were very lucky we didn’t have to put anyone on a ventilator.

I called almost every hospital in the state one day for a patient that was getting worse and there were almost none available at all and that was really scary.”

Now that more and more people are being vaccinated, Thompson said doctors are starting to see hope for the end of the pandemic.

“You feel like you can take a big breath now,” Thompson said, “knowing people are getting vaccinated and the severity seems to not be as bad now as in the very beginning. It speaks to the administration for Ivy Creek; they had our vaccine orders in and freezers bought right at the very beginning so we were able to start vaccinating people faster. We have a batch of vaccine that comes in and already have that number of people scheduled to come in. As more vaccine companies are approved, the vaccine availability grows exponentially.”

The doctor community has also been invaluable, Thompson said.

“The doctor community is a pretty small community in that everybody tries to help everyone else and this was really shown during this pandemic,” Thompson said. “I would talk to a pulmonologist at Baptist South or call Jackson (Hospital) and talk to an infectious disease expert. I’ve been a doctor about 20 years and have never seen this level of collaboration.”

Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Doctors’ Day 2021

Carmen Rodgers / Tallapoosa Publishers

Dr. Vasant Temull began practicing in Tallassee in July. He moved to Tallassee with his wife Krista and their daughter Arya from Ohio.

Tallassee’s newest doctor is settling in

By CARMEN RODGERS For Tallapoosa Publishers

Dr. Vasant Temull began practicing in Tallassee in July. He moved to Tallassee with his wife, Krista, and their daughter, Arya, from Cleveland, Ohio. Temull says the biggest adjustment has been the weather.

“It’s been pretty good. I came from Cleveland so there definitely was a change in weather, which was good. I came from driving through a blizzard to nice sunny weather,” Temull said.

Now that Temull has adjusted to the Alabama heat, he says he is settling in well in the community.

“Everyone has been really nice and helpful,” he said. “My patients are really sweet and enjoyable to interact with. They have treated me well and everyone has been hospitable.

My family is experiencing the definition of ‘Southern Hospitality.’”

Temull started practicing in Tallassee in the middle of the COVID19 health pandemic.

Before moving to Tallassee, Temull first saw COVID patents in Ohio.

“Coming from Cleveland, where I was at, we did have COVID. Back then it was just starting to be in full swing so I had some experience with it. Obviously, it’s a different place but it’s the same kind of patients. Then, things started to ramp up and we began seeing more and more patients with it. It became hectic,” he said.

“We treated patients as best we could.

Unfortunately, with COVID, everywhere, there has been a lot of death,” he said. “We have had our share.”

Being a doctor can be a difficult job, but COVID, at times, has made it even more difficult.

“A lot of staff members, relatives and patients, they lost loved ones,” Temull said. “It can be tough.”

Temull stayed in contact with his patients’ family members and loved ones during the pinnacle of the health pandemic when the hospitals did not allow visitors.

Some have opted to stay away from

medical facilities since the health pandemic began last year. This means those routine health checkups haven’t been very routine. But, according to Dr. Temull, things are beginning to look up. COVID numbers are going down and patient are comfortable about coming to the office. “Things are returning to normal.”

With the pandemic, Temull said his general practice has seen an uptick as people are showing more interest in their general health.

“Compared to when I first started, we have become a lot busier. I think a lot more people are interested in their health. More people are interested in getting vaccinated. There is a sense of patients wanting to lookout after themselves,” Temull said. “In light of the pandemic, everyone wants to make sure they are as fit as they can be.”

When not at work, Temull enjoys the outdoors; a passion that he shares with his daughter. “She loves the outdoors and so do I. I love spending time with family playing with my daughter. And my wife is very supportive. She is absolutely the big pillar in my life.”

Since making Tallassee home, Temull is grateful for the warm welcome he and his family have received, and for the continued support from the community, his patients as well everyone affiliated with Community Hospital.

“I would like to thank everyone for being hospitable and really good patients. They have been welcoming, loving, they have really shown support to me and my family, in addition to everyone here at the clinic and at Community Hospital. Everyone has been really supportive,” Temull said.

Temull is currently accepting patients. His office is located at 80 Herren Hill Road Suite A in the Community Medical Plaza.

The office phone number is 334-283-3844 and the office is open Monday thru Thursday from 7:30am-4:30pm and Friday from 7:30am – 11:30am.

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Doctors’ Day 2021

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Wednesday, March 31, 2021

File / Tallapoosa Publishers

Joann Long receives the COVID-19 vaccine from Sarah Covington, CRNP with Covington Healthcare, at God’s Congregational Holiness Church in Jordanville.

COVID alters the way doctors practice medicine

By BRIANA WILSON For Tallapoosa Publishers

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic practicing doctors, nurses and medical professionals in other fields have had to make changes to the ways they care for patients.

There was a time when Dr. Melissa Thompson, the hospitalist at Elmore

Community Hospital, would pull up a chair to a patient’s bedside and just sit a talk with them for a few minutes to help build rapport. She’d talk about their lives, their likes and dislikes, and give them a pat on the hand, but COVID has changed all of that.

Now Thompson must be efficient with her words and minimize the time

she spends with each patient.

“You have to be in and out as quickly as possible, but you have to make sure they understand what you’re telling them, and you have to make sure there aren’t any symptoms going uncontrolled,” Thompson said.

Thompson said communicating effectively and efficiently can sometimes be a challenge in itself.

“When you have a mask on, your voice is muffled,” she said. “You really have to talk loud and clear enough for patients to hear you. It’s especially challenging with patients who are hard of hearing because what happens is that many of them eventually learn to read lips. So, in addition See CHANGES • Page 5

March 30 is National Doctors’ Day The Jackson Hospital Foundation invites you to make a contribution in your doctor’s honor.

The honoree will receive a Doctors’ Day card, along with your personal message.

Donations in honor of today’s medical staff will assist our healthcare providers of tomorrow.

Please call 334-293-6940 or visit Jackson.org/DoctorsDay to donate.

Doctors’ Day 2021

Wednesday, March 31, 2021

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Changes

continued from Page 4

to the bits and pieces that they can hear, they’re also reading your lips to fill in the blanks. That was a challenge.

Sometimes, no matter how loud you talk, they just can’t hear you. There were times I’d have to back up from the bed 6 feet and take the mask down so they could understand what I was saying.”

Communication difficulties and limitations led Thompson and the other medical professionals to communicating more with family members than they have in the past.

“We probably reached out to family members more than

we typically do in order to learn more about patients,” she said. “We tried to find out about patients’ favorite things and foods they like to help make them feel more comfortable. If we saw a person getting depressed, we’d call in a family member, dress them in personal protective equipment, and let them sit with their loved one to help cheer them up.”

With the hospital being a small community hospital, all patients are kept on the hospital’s horseshoe-shaped medical surgical floor. All COVID patients are on one arm of the

horseshoe and non-COVID patients are on the other.

When making rounds, Thompson said she’d be sure to visit all non-COVID patients first and she made it a point not to circle back to non-COVID patients after seeing COVID patients.

“After a while, it all really just becomes second nature,” she said. “We’ve become so much more efficient with gowning, gloving and masking. Everyone is much quicker with it now. We’ve become proficient with helping patients communicate with their family members through

FaceTime. It’s just been within the last week or two that that hospital was opened back up to visitors.”

Nowadays, the hospital averages one to two COVID patients per week, according to Thompson. It’s a stark contrast from April 2020 to July 2020 when there were about 36 COVID patients at the hospital. Thompson said the influx was mainly due to nursing home patients who were diagnosed with COVID and needed a place to go until their nursing home could figure out a plan of action. After July, the hospital average

about eight COVID patients per week until November when more people began coming in through the emergency room.

“Now, we’re back to seeing more regular patients,” Thompson said.

Thompson attributes the decline to the fact that wearing masks, handwashing and sanitizing has become the norm now. Not enough people have been vaccinated for that to be a contributing factor.

“It was such a huge culture shock back then, but now it’s part of our culture and everything we do,” she said.

Doctors’ heroism shines in pandemic D

octors have always played a crucial role in our lives, taking care of us when we are at our most vulnerable as well as helping to steer us in the right direction when it comes to healthy lifestyles.

But never has the importance of doctors ever been as clear and present as we have seen in the past year.

Last Doctors Day, we were just about two weeks into the

beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Routine elective procedures had to be pushed off, doctors were—and still are—working around the clock with an unprecedented influx of patients needing attention. In a time of fear and uncertainty, doctors have been our stabilizing force.

Doctors have been key to continuing the general health and wellbeing of patients

to ensure people feel safe.

Now they are the ones JACOB delivering our vaccines, our hope for the end of this seemHOLMES ingly unending pandemic.

News I never liked going to the Editor doctor’s office, and I absolutely hate being in hospitals, but while also balancing their own it’s impossible not to respect risk from the novel coronavithe work doctors and nurses rus. They have also been key do every day to provide care figures in arming us with the to us and our loved ones. information we need to stay The truth is, doctors have safe, breaking through barriers been heroes all along, but the

pandemic has finally put their heroism on full display. This Doctors’ Day, they deserve all of our thanks and praise as we look to the light at the end of the tunnel.

Once the pandemic ends, we cannot forget all that they have done and how much we have to be thankful for.

Let us always remember to honor these heroes, even if we do prefer to stay out of their offices.

Tallapoosa Publishers, Inc.

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Doctors’ Day 2021

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Wednesday, March 31, 2021

‘It’s all about the relationships’

General practice doctors say they take pride in ability to care for their extended family

By CLIFF WILLIAMS For Tallapoosa Publishers

T

Submitted / Tallapoosa Publishers

Dr. Edward Roberts and Dr. Tate Hinkle of Russell Medical’s Total Healthcare say being a rural doctor is ‘all about the relationships.’

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elevision shows often glamourize the medical specialities. They show a cardiologist performing open heart surgery or a neurosurgeon removing part of a skull.

While those are needed medical specialities, much care can be given by family practitioners in a rural setting.

For the doctors at Total Healthcare, they take pride in knowing they can help most patients with most of their ailments, but for them, practicing medicine is only the beginning of what keeps them in a rural setting. It’s the relationships that bring them the biggest reward.

Dr. Tate Hinkle sees patients at Russell Medical’s Total Healthcare in Alexander City and Russell Medical’s Medical Park Family Care in Dadeville. Family medicine in a rural setting is very appealing to Hinkle.

“The reason it still interests me is one the need is always there,” Hinkle said. “Two, the people are just incredibly nice. We become part of their family; we get to know them; we get to know their families; they get to know our families.

“I end up seeing entire families. I have got one family where I see the grandparents, the parents and four of the grandchildren. I see eight members of the family.”

Those relationships help Hinkle with medical care of the family.

“Being able to have those relationships when one of them comes in, I know the whole family,” Hinkle said.

“I know the dynamic of the family.

You don’t get that in an urban setting.

That is a big aspect of why I did family medicine. That to me is highlighted in rural areas because the family unit is such a big part of rural Alabama.

Being able to be a part of taking care of a whole family is really important to us.”

Relationships with patients and their families is also critical for Total Healthcare’s Dr. Robert Edwards.

“Getting to know families, not only the patient but their families and their roles in the community, interacting with those folks on a personal level, I enjoy it,” Edwards said. “It’s really rewarding to see folks doing well and knowing you had a role in that.”

Edwards said he couldn’t see himself in any other medical area than a family practice in a rural setting.

“I was born to do this; I’m a people person,” Edwards said. “True increases in long term health is done in this setting. You go to the ER, it is to get you upright again. The same with the hospital. “In this setting we are able to help folks with problems they have medically that make big time changes in their lives. Being a part of that, helping someone lose weight, helping someone get their diabetes under control so it is not an issue, it’s extremely rewarding. It is awesome to see your patients do well. You get feedback on a daily basis and it is a great thing.”

Hinkle knew early on he wanted to go into medicine but wasn’t sure exactly what he wanted to do. Hinkle shadowed different doctors in high school and college.

“When I finally shadowed my first family doctor, it was like a light switch went off,” Hinkle said. “I saw him as somebody who had formed these relationships. He had been some patients’ doctor for more than 30 years. He knew what was going on with them before he walked into the door. He knew why they were there.

Half the visit was how is your daughter who is now in college or going on to medical school.

“I don’t do this but he delivered babies. Some of those people he delivered the patient that is now sitting in front of him, now 30, and having a child. That kind of a relationship with

people when you get to help them and treat them when they are at some of their best and worst times of their lives and being able to help walk them through those times and be there for when they need you but also see their successes, that is some of the best things ever.”

Hinkle doesn’t cross his arms and send a patient on to some random specialist. Hinkle wants to put all of his training to use but is not afraid to let another medical provider assist.

“We pride ourselves on being able to handle 90 to 95% of what everybody else does,” Hinkle said. “What I try to do when I send them to somebody else, they are ready to do whatever they need to do. I can’t operate on people but I can do everything I can to get them ready for Dr. Swenson — x rays and test. When they go to see her, all she has got to do is ‘yeah, you need surgery — lets go do it.’”

Hinkle wants to get to the bottom of a patient’s issue to the best of his ability even when he does refer a patient to a specialist.

“I want to make sure I’m sending patients where they need to go too,” Hinkle said. “That is part of my job is to figure out exactly where they need to go instead of somebody else trying to figure out what is going on. I like being a detective and figuring out what is going on.

“It also helps out if I have done most of the workup, I know when the patient comes back what is going on.

I have got more knowledge of what is going on.”

Hinkle made sure his efforts in medical school and beyond prepared him to serve the vast majority of patients coming through the doors of the clinic.

“One of the things when I was going through residency, I made sure I went to a program and made sure I got experience in doing everything,” Hinkle said. “I was trained to deliver babies. I delivered 80 babies in residency. I don’t do it anymore. If someone walked in the door delivering a baby, I could do it. We still like to be able to handle pretty much everything that walks through the door. I tell patients I’m your first stop for whatever you have. If I can’t take care of it or don’t know what is going on, I will find someone who can. But I’m going to try my best to figure it out to begin with.”

Seeing incremental medical improvements keeps Edwards motivated.

“To me I like the ability to be able to care for all sorts of medical issues and really take care of most of them,” Edwards said. “I guess the most rewarding thing for me as a primary care guy in a rural area is making a difference in the long term outcome whether it be improving their diabetes or heart patients to help with their issues. Taking people with multiple comorbidities and being able to help them not have to go to the hospital all the time, decreasing their morbidity from disease.”

Hinkle likes that he gets to see the full picture of treatment of his patients.

“I noticed with a patient from a big city that moved here, talk about how their primary care doctor had her going to five or six different specialists,” Hinkle said. “It is all stuff we take care of on a daily basis. She was going to one for her blood pressure, another doctor for her diabetes and another doctor for this. I was like, ‘I do all that.’ We can offer that for the most part for our patients right here.

They don’t have to go elsewhere.

Obviously if we feel like there are instances where they need to go see a specialist, we still do that.”

Even when they send a patient to a specialist, patients still seek Edwards’ and Hinkle’s advice.

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Doctors’ Day 2021

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Rural

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“A lot of times when a patient goes to a specialist and recommends something, a lot of times the patient will come back to me and say, ‘They recommended this. What do you think about it? You are my family doctor. What do you think I should do?” Hinkle said. “I send them to someone who can do something I can’t do but the patient has trust in us because of our relationships that they want to know what our opinion is on everything before they go do something.”

Neither Edwards nor Hinkle would trade a rural setting for the big city.

“I grew up in a rural town; I grew up in Lanett,” Hinkle said. “It was primarily manufacturing, very much like Alexander City with Russell, it was West Point Stevens.

“One set of my grandparents had a farm. I grew up in that life. I saw in rural Alabama how it would be good to be a good primary care doctor that could take care of a lot of different stuff.”

Edwards rural upbringing has family roots.

“I kind of knew I was going into rural healthcare when I entered med school because I was raised in a rural community,” Edwards said. “I married a wife that was raised in a rural community. That kind of pointed me to a rural area.”

Edwards’ wife was influential in him coming to Russell Medical. The decision means Edwards can care for his patients all across the system.

“My first visit here during the interviews before any offers were made, I walked out with my wife and she said, ‘You would be happy here,’” Edwards said. “She was right.

I can interact with the hospital. I can interact with patients in the hospital. I can go care for them while they are in the hospital.”

Edwards said the relationships of medical providers and the fact Russell Medical is a member of the UAB Health System means great care for all patients in a rural setting.

“I just really enjoy my small town; I just really enjoy my small hospital,” Edwards said. “What is really unique is the breadth and youth of specialists that we are getting from UAB is huge. I can pick up the phone and get a patient in front of whoever is needed immediately. We can have a good conversation about patient care and all of us be onboard. There is no turf stuff. There is no competition between sub-specialists.

It is just a fluid environment here.

Edwards just loves trying to make the area better and enjoying the rural setting and the relationships it affords. Hinkle is the same.

“I enjoy the slower pace of life of a rural area,” Hinkle said. “I enjoy the relationships. That is why I do what I do. If I had to boil it down to one thing it is the relationships.”

Siri Hedreen / Tallapoosa Publishers

Dr. Bill Harrell shows off his Cone Beam CT scanner, the first of its kind in Alabama.

Orthodontist shows, not tells, using science fiction-like X-ray technology

By SIRI HEDREEN For Tallapoosa Publishers

by health insurance. “(Doctors) don’t have to get it done; it’s kind of a voluntary thing,” he said.

Some might be baffled to hear from “But if you take one of those images an orthodontist that braces will help it’s not like you’ve got to fight with the their child pay attention in class. insurance company anymore, because That’s where Alexander City orthoit’s all done the way the insurance comdontist Dr. Bill Harrell pulls up on his pany wants to do it.” computer a 3D image of the patient’s In order to explain the technology head, made translucent to show their better, Harrell first contrasted it with an teeth and jawbone, and explain how ordinary CT scan. the patient’s small jaw is set back, nar“You go to a hospital, you get a CT rowing their airway and making it difscan. They lay you down and the thing ficult to breathe while sleeping. When runs around you like this,” he said, movchildren’s sleep is affected, they have ing his hand in a circular motion. “Every trouble paying attention in class. time it makes its (rotation) it takes a To get those 3D images, Harrell uses little slice of you, like slices of bread. his Cone Beam CT scanner, the first of It’s just taking an image, moving a little its kind in Alabama when his practice bit more, taking an image.” got it in 2005. After the Cone Beam CT Just as slices of bread form a loaf, scans a picture of the patient’s teeth, the CT scan combines hundreds of 2D Harrell uses a 3D photogrammetry X-rays to form a 3D full-body scan. system to get a 3D scan of the patient’s Harrell’s Cone Beam CT scanner, howhead and facial features. ever, takes 300 to 400 X-rays taken “Now that with the 3D face, I’m the from different angles around the face, first practice in the United States to have which the computer then combines into both of those together,” he said. one 3D image. The scan takes less than Harrell, also an assistant associate 10 seconds. professor at University of Alabama, is When viewing the scan on the comstandards committee chair for the Cone puter screen, “It’s just like a skull — it’s Beam CT technology. Earlier this week, a full-rendered view,” Harrell said. “If the committee announced it would start you looked at each X-ray, it just looks offering dental and medical accreditalike an X-ray. But the computer knows tion programs for doctors interested in all these distances and where the faces using the imaging technology, an impor- sits so it knows how the anatomy tant step in making the Cone Beam CT moves, and it can plot the anatomy.” ubiquitous nationwide. Harrell said the Layered over the skull is a realistic accreditation is optional but will make it 3D image of the patient’s face, which easier for patients’ scans to get covered Harrell says is not just for aesthetic rea-

sons.

“The shape of the bones and all that and the way the bones and teeth are all oriented affects the face,” he said. “If you have a small, gimpy lower jaw, your jaw’s going to be sitting back.”

In addition to being an orthodontist, Harrell practices dental sleep medicine, two fields that go hand-in-hand. As an example, Harrell pulled up an X-ray of one of his small-jawed patients and clicked on her airway, which the computer measured.

“She’s 12 years old and it’s supposed to be 120 mm2,” he said. “Instead it’s 79 mm2. If you think about the lower jaw sitting back, if it’s sitting back what it’s doing is it’s going in the airway.”

A narrow airway can cause sleep apnea and other breathing problems, Harrell said. For adult patients, he prescribes headgear which temporarily moves their jaw forward while they sleep at night. For kids, however, whose jaws are still growing, braces can help guide the jaw’s growth away from their airway.

“I can grow the jaw that way so it’s a permanent resolution to it,” he said.

“As I’m making room for the teeth, I’m making room for the tongue, and guess what, I’m making the airway bigger.”

All of this Harrell is able to explain with the aid of an interactive, 3D image.

“If you look at that you say ‘Well yeah, OK, I can understand that,’” he said. “’I can see how crowded they are.

I can tell my child’s got a small airway,’ or something like that.”

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Doctors’ Day 2021

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Submitted / Tallapoosa Publishers

Each year, Auburn University provides a pre-matriculation year of instruction for Rural Medicine Program students as they begin the process of becoming small-town doctors in Alabama.

AU helping Rural Medicine Program provide future doctors throughout Alabama STAFF REPORT TPI Staff

studies like we would if they were in graduate school. We look at their backgrounds, strengths and weakness and Auburn University’s long history develop a curriculum around that to try of helping mold the state’s physicians and better prepare them for medical of tomorrow continues with a talented school. group of students ready to dedicate “I help shore up their sciences to get themselves to serving their local comthem ready.” munities through the Rural Medicine Laura Catherine Cresswel, who Program, or RMP. earned a degree in chemical engineerAs part of a collaboration with ing from the University of Alabama at the University of Alabama School of Huntsville in May, has hit the ground Medicine, or UASOM, Auburn’s RMP running during her year at Auburn. serves as a crucial first step for students “It really is an awesome opportunity transitioning from the undergraduate for people who know they want to go realm to medical school. Now in its into rural medicine,” said Cresswell, 15th year in Auburn, RMP is a sister who hails from the 8,300-resident town program of the University of Alabama’s of Arab, Alabama. “When I first heard Rural Medical Scholars Program, or about the program, what really interRMSP, that dates back nearly three ested me was the pre-matriculation year, decades. because I thought the year would be It provides a year of pre-matriculagood for me to get more biology classes tion instruction and experience that pre- since I was a chemical engineering pares future physicians for the rigors of major. medical school, while serving as a path“I already knew my intentions of way for them to begin their journeys to wanting to practice rural medicine, life as a rural doctor. and the program just made me realize “It’s a bridge between college and it more. I think this program is really medical school,” said Larry Wit, who going to help expose me to a lot more oversees Auburn’s program as its acaand show me what I need to expect with demic director. “Auburn has a long his- rural medicine.” tory, through the College of Sciences Pre-matriculation-year courses like and Math, of preparing students well for Clinical Applications, taught by RMP medical school.”

Medical Director Dr. Keith Bufford, Through Auburn’s program, students give students practical insight into rural who want to become physicians in rural medicine and are an integral part of areas of Alabama can receive streamtheir instruction at Auburn. lined instruction in key subjects like Featuring the motto “Preparing You biology, gain practical experience via to Help Your Neighbor,” the program’s lab sessions and by working in clinics foundational goal, Wit says, is to help and learn what to expect from medifill a never-ending need for physicians cal school. RMP is the beginning, with in rural Alabama. students then moving on to two years at “We all participate in this with the the UASOM in Birmingham before fin- objective ultimately of improving the ishing with two years of clinical clerklot of people who live in small towns in ships in Huntsville. rural Alabama, in terms of the disparity Wit helps RMP students tailor their that exists with their health care,” said pre-matriculation instruction at Auburn Wit, professor emeritus and associate to get the most out of their time on the dean emeritus of Auburn’s College of Plains, and not every student’s class Sciences and Mathematics, or COSAM. schedule looks the same.

“One of the great challenges of getting “Since these students come from people in rural medicine is not just to different institutions and different back- produce more doctors, but to produce grounds, there are some courses all of doctors who will go and practice in them take, but not all of them take the those areas. Our desire is that, at the same courses,” Wit said. “We plan their end of the day when they’re done with

their training, that they are primary care physicians practicing in some rural area or small town in Alabama.”

Auburn thoroughly scrutinizes its RMP applicants, limiting each year’s group to roughly a dozen. They must come from small towns in Alabama, have an inherent desire to serve rural communities and meet the strict requirements of medical school. Students do not sign contracts to commit to RMP, instead buying into the program’s honor system as they take their first step toward becoming doctors.

“Most people don’t go back to places like that unless they grow up there,” Wit said. “It has to be part of their DNA, and it almost has to be a calling. So, that’s why we’re so particular about who we take.”

Dr. David Bramm, who practiced family medicine in rural Mississippi before returning to his hometown of Huntsville years ago, heads up the state’s RMP program. He agrees with Wit that it takes a special type of student to dedicate themselves to serving the state’s most marginalized populations.

“We want to find the student with the right stuff,” said Bramm, who practiced in Centreville, Mississippi, a town of approximately 1,400. “We want them to have the demeanor, the personality, love, understanding and compassion to be family physicians, but also the intellectual capacity and the stick-to-itiveness to get through medical school.”

One of those students, third-year program participant Jayci Hamrick, is well on her way toward helping those in need in her hometown of Haleyville, Alabama. She entered the program after earning a biomedical engineering degree from UAB in 2018 and relishes the opportunity to one day return to the town of roughly 4,000 as a family medicine practitioner.

“I really want to go back to my hometown,” Hamrick said. “I loved growing up there and loved being raised in a small town. There are not many physicians that will be left in my hometown after I graduate, because they’re getting ready to retire. So, I’d like to go and give back to the community I come from.”

Most Alabama counties have a significant shortage of physicians, and Wit described the need as “unbelievable” and constant. Bramm agrees.

“Of the general population of medical students nationwide, surveys have shown only about 3 percent of doctors want to or plan to go practice in a small town,” said Bramm, who said Auburn has been a conduit for 114 of the 143 RMP participants through the years.

Wit says the structured collaboration among the state’s educational institutions, coupled with consistent support from state government, has been a boost for the program.

“We’ve done remarkably well, in terms of our students choosing family practice in rural communities or just adjacent to rural communities,” Wit said. “We are committed to try and return the investment the state of Alabama has made in us to do this program. They’ve been faithful in supporting this program.”

Bramm has been inspired by the quality of students who have come through the RMP program.

“They’re so smart, and they have such a capacity for learning,” Bramm said. “They’re exactly what you want your kids to be.

“I should have retired five years ago, but I love working with the students too much. It’s so much fun.”

Wit also finds his role with RMP immensely fulfilling and routinely is filled with pride from seeing the students evolve into dedicated doctors.

“I’ve gone and visited a couple of them, and you feel like a proud papa when you see them in action,” Wit said.

“These are good kids who are the salt of the Earth, they really are. They don’t have a sense of entitlement. They’re just hard-working Alabama folks.”

The program, especially the first year at Auburn, is particularly inspiring for the students as well.

“I 100-percent love the program,” Hamrick said. “I don’t know if I could have just jumped right in coming from undergrad to med school, and it really helped prepare me. If I could go back and go through the program again, I’d do it.”