Funding, Attracting Employees Major Obstacles Facing Health Care

NSU President Dr. Don Betz opened the Health Care Challenges in Eastern Oklahoma panel held Tuesday night on the Muskogee campus. The panelists included Steve Mahan, Chief Executive Officer for Muskogee Regional Medical Center, Dr. Martin Venneman, Dean of the NSU College of Science and Health Professions, Melissa Gower, Group Leader of Cherokee Nation Health Services and Government Relations, Dr. Donnie Nero, President of Connors State College, Rudy Klopfer, Associate Director of the Jack C. Montgomery VA Medical Center in Muskogee, Tom Stiles, Superintendent of Indian Capital Technology Center and Mark Roberts, President of Muskogee Community Hospital.

MUSKOGEE Area health care providers struggle every day to find enough staff, equipment, facilities and services to meet the increasing demand for health care services in eastern Oklahoma and across the nation, meanwhile educational centers struggle to find the staff to train medical professionals.

The major challenges of the health care system fall under these major categories: funding, needed personnel, public expectation, public health practice and overall financing of the health care system, said Steve Mahan, chief executive officer of Muskogee Regional Medical Center. It comes down to money, it comes down to interest and it comes down to incentives.

Northeastern State University assembled a panel of experts working in the Eastern Oklahoma health care industry on Tuesday, April 28 for Health Care Challenges in Eastern Oklahoma, a panel discussion held in conjunction with Inauguration Week activities for the institutions 17th President, Dr. Don Betz.

Panelists for the forum included Mahan, Dr. Martin Venneman, dean of the NSU College of Science and Health Professions, Dr. Donnie Nero, president of Connors State College, Thomas Stiles, superintendent of Indian Capital Technology Center, Mark Roberts, president of Muskogee Community Hospital, Melissa Gower, group leader of Cherokee Nation Health Services and Government Relations, and Rudy Klopfer, associate director of the Jack C. Montgomery VA Medical Center in Muskogee. The discussion was moderated by Dr. Tim McElroy, dean of NSU-Muskogee.

It comes down to options that are available to young people that are choosing careers today, said Mahan. The lifestyles that they want to live, and their potential earnings, heath care professions do pay well, but we do have some odd hours, particularly in professions such as nursing because we are truly a 24-7, 365 profession.

The VA Medical Center in Muskogee has developed partnerships with state institutions such as NSU, CSC, Bacone College, Langston University, and the University of Oklahoma, to create learning programs for students interested in health care professions.

That helps us stay sharp and provide the highest quality care for our veterans, said Klopfer. It also allows us to bring in quality students who have gotten into programs across the state and gives us great pull in attracting them to our offices.

Muskogee Community Hospital touts itself as one of the greenest hospitals in rural America, with a strict focus on quality patient care.

Every aspect of the building is designed to answer this question, Is it good for the patient? said Roberts. Im hear to tell you that being green isn't cheaper, but if you look at it as being good for the patient, its worth the added cost. Thats the whole concept behind our hospital.

As a result of that emphasis, Roberts said the hospital has better retention of employees because they want to work in places with the best equipment in a business designed to provide the best in patient care.

Gower said that American Indian health care faces huge challenges with funding and staffing, serving a large population in limited clinic space.

Our federal funding is discretionary and therefore competes with all the other discretionary funding in the nation, said Gower. As a result, our services are very basic and very limited.

On the education side, institutions are struggling to find qualified educators willing to train future generations of medical professionals when they can make more money working in the profession.

We have to increase the ability to educate, said Nero. When they graduate from our program, very few will go into the teaching field because they can earn more dollars in the profession. We have to increase the salaries for the teachers that we have in these higher education centers, and thats a challenge for us.

Nero said that there are plans and partnerships underway to address this shortage in teachers and funding to attract teachers.

Stiles stressed that providing access and opportunity was key to attracting students to the programs. With limited numbers of students being admitted to these programs, there arent enough graduates to meet the demands of the growing health care industry.

Retention for us is to keep the students in the educational pipeline to complete a training skill area, said Stiles. We provide opportunities for students to look at different career options and provide them with options of where they can continue their education.

Students in the programs face major challenges in financial aid, finances, childcare and having to work while in school, Stiles said.

Most of the medical professionals that graduate from programs in eastern Oklahoma tend to stay in Oklahoma and remain close to the locations where they are trained, Venneman said.

Were doing everything possible to secure resources, including effective state petitions, effective federal petitions, effective stimulus money petitions, said Venneman. NSU fortunately has the strength of the sciences to support this local programming that were trying to implement, but we cant do it alone. It takes a collaborative effort to pull off a remedy of the magnitude we are talking about to address the needs of the health care in Eastern Oklahoma.

4/30/2009

Published: 2009-04-30 00:00:00