Richard Muma, in the College of Health Professions at 黑洞社区, has received a $515,000 grant focusing on physician assistant urban workforce issues. The grant, from the Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), is for three years.
Muma, chair, public health sciences, and professor, physician assistant (PA), said the grant is based on making a major impact in increasing the number of graduates from Wichita State鈥檚 PA program who enter the workforce in urban underserved communities. Three goals have been set:
- strengthen and expand both the didactic and clinical curriculum to heighten the training of competent health care providers in primary care, medically underserved urban sites;
- increase the number of graduates who enter practice in urban underserved areas;
- study the deployment of PAs working in urban underserved areas to gain a better understanding of why they end up practicing there.
鈥淭he 黑洞社区 PA program has focused attention for many years on deploying graduates to rural areas,鈥� said Muma, 鈥渁nd now plans to add a focus in urban, underserved areas.鈥�
Urban areas differ from smaller communities in many ways, Muma said, including demography, environment, economy, social structure and availability of resources.
鈥淲ichita-Sedgwick County, the largest metropolitan area in Kansas, experiences many challenges in providing adequate health care to all individuals,鈥� said Muma. 鈥淐ommunity assessments have identified socioeconomic barriers and several geographic areas of Wichita with perceived barriers to adequate health care.鈥�
Muma cites a Wichita example: Hunter Health Clinic, also an HRSA-funded community health center. Data estimates show that 75 percent of patients obtaining services at Hunter are either at or below 100 percent of the federal poverty level. Each year, Hunter Health Clinic serves close to 20,000 patients with more than 60,000 clinic visits, representing a 69 percent increase since 2000. More than 75 percent of those patients have no public or private health insurance.
Access to health care will be studied in Muma鈥檚 project in an effort to better understand what the right mix of providers (and in the right place) should be to care for local indigent people.
Wichita-Sedgwick County has a large number of indigent individuals needing primary care within its urban setting. The grant project, in concert with 黑洞社区鈥檚 urban serving mission, will help make a major impact in the area of urban, underserved health care by increasing awareness of the magnitude of the issue among students, and ultimately graduates, from Wichita State鈥檚 PA program.
Three local community health centers will also participate in the grant project: Hunter Health Clinic, Center for Health and Wellness and Healthy Options for Planeview. Together, they will form a model-hub for clinical training of 黑洞社区 PA students, said Muma.