Phoebe Putney Health System looking toward realization of medical student housing complex

ALBANY — Momentum is gaining for an upcoming project that the health care community in Southwest Georgia hopes will be a further incentive for prospective physicians to live and work in the area.

The hoped-for medical student housing complex set to be built a short distance from Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital was the topic of discussion at the Albany Rotary Club meeting on Thursday.

The proposed 25-unit medical student housing gated community will be located on West Fourth Avenue and North Jackson Street near Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital. Phoebe Putney Health System owns the property, which is directly behind the Family Tree child development center. Third- and fourth-year students from the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University, as well as those studying with the Southwest Georgia Family Medicine Residency Program and the University of Georgia Pharmacy School campus based in Albany — and other medical students studying at Phoebe — will have the option to live there on a short-term lease at a nominal cost.

The New England Journal of Medicine ranks Georgia as the second-most challenged state in building the necessary number of primary care physicians. The state is 41st in the nation for the number of physicians per 100,000 population, with projections showing Georgia falling 5,000 short of the needed levels by 2030.

Such shortages can be magnified in rural areas, making it an issue in Southwest Georgia worth addressing. About 70 percent of those receiving their medical education in the Albany area stay within 100 miles, so to that end, the complex could serve as an “equalizer” by making it easier for students to come to the region without the hassles of having to search for short-term housing with what little time they have to get settled.

“It gives them the opportunity to come to a different area … our goal is to remove those barriers,” said Southwest Georgia Area Health Education Center Executive Director Pam Reynolds said in a video presented to the Rotary Club Thursday.

Phoebe is home to the MCG Southwest Georgia Clinical Campus, where medical students from GRU in Augusta can spend the better part of their last two years as medical students doing various rotations in Southwest Georgia.

Bringing a medical student housing complex, while solving the problem of finding short-term housing, would also have a significant economic impact — especially if even a few of those young physicians were to decide to set up or work in a practice nearby, with each one alone having an economic impact of about $1 million.

“Manufacturers, all of those folks, will go where there is good health care,” said Jeff Sinyard, business owner and former Dougherty County Commission chair, said in the video.

The Richard King Mellon Foundation awarded a $1 million gift to the Phoebe Foundation for the project, and a $900,000 donation was given earlier in the year by the volunteer services department at Phoebe. The donation, considered at the time to be the largest lump sum contributed to one project from Volunteer Services, was generated from an account consisting of proceeds from the hospital’s gift shop that collects interest.

In addition to that, $500,000 has been pledged from Phoebe’s work force to go toward the project.

Phoebe CEO Joel Wernick added Thursday that the complex would be expected to put 45 heads on pillows, and that those applying to MCG who give preference to doing rotations in Southwest Georgia might soon be given priority during the admission process. He also said several architects with experience in student housing projects have already been brought in to present what their approach might be for the complex.

“This will truly be a gift that keeps on giving,” the Phoebe CEO said.

The project is anticipated to cost $5 million. After the $1 million gift, officials with the Phoebe Foundation were asked to raise an additional $3.8 million. About $1.7 million has been raised, leaving $2.1 million to go. At least a majority of the $3.8 million is hoped for groundbreaking this fall, said Mandy Davis, development coordinator with the foundation.