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PrintGovernor Reappoints Lowry to Workforce Board
July 2009
James R. Lowry, president and CEO of Colquitt Regional Medical Center, has been reappointed as a hospital representative on the Georgia Board for Physician Workforce, the state agency responsible for advising the governor and General Assembly on physician workforce and medical education issues.
Lowry, who has served one three-year term on the board and currently serves as secretary/treasurer of the board, was reappointed by Gov. Sonny Perdue to a second term ending Oct. 6. 2014. The board is comprised of 15 members who represent hospitals, businesses, various physician specialties and the consumer, according the Cherrie Tucker, executive director of the board.
The physician workforce board monitors and forecasts the supply and distribution of physicians in Georgia in order to assure an adequate supply, specialty mix and geographic distribution of physicians to meet the health care needs of Georgians. It also works to assure that there are adequate medical education programs to meet physician workforce needs.
“The board was originally created in 1976 to increase the number of family physicians in the state,” Ms. Tucker said, “but over the years various programs were added by the General Assembly other than family medicine so the board basically reconstituted itself into the Physician Workforce Board in 1999 and now has representatives from other medical specialties.”
Lowry says the board’s mission translates to three main goals.
“The No. 1 mission is to ensure that the citizens of the state of Georgia have a reasonable supply of physicians by specialty per 100,000 population; second appropriate allocation of physicians throughout the state in urban and rural areas; and third assist with the proper funding of the Georgia residency programs.”
For the past 20 years, the Georgia Physician Workforce Board has monitored the distribution of physicians throughout Georgia by specialty as well as by demographics and issues fact sheets outlining challenges and possible solutions.
In its most recent fact sheet issued in January of this year, the board highlighted the challenges of achieving an optimal supply, specialty mix and distribution of physicians and recommended a coordinated effort to add more residency training and graduate medical education positions. The report pointed out that the overall retention rate for graduates of Georgia medical education programs funded through the Georgia Physician Workforce board was significantly higher than the national average.
Lowry says the board holds residency programs accountable for retention of physicians in Georgia after completing residency training by controlling their funding. If a program’s retention rate falls below 50 percent over a five-year period, the board reduces the program’s funding.
Currently the state allocates $58 million per year to fund the residency programs.
Lowry says the board’s work has paid off over the years and has significantly improved health care in Southwest Georgia.
“In fact, you’re probably closer – time wise – to a physician or emergency room in southwest Georgia than you would be if you were in parts of Atlanta,” Lowry says. “Southwest Georgia has seen a significant increase in the quality and access to medical care in the past 30 years.”