A growing number of physicians have been returning to their hometowns or native regions to practice. A study published in Family Medicine reveals that recent medical school graduates are almost five times more likely to practice in their hometowns or adjacent areas.
Jim Stone, president of the National Association of Physician Recruiters, has noticed this trend. "Physicians gravitate naturally toward areas they are familiar with from some point in their lives," he says, citing hometowns as a preferred practice location for physicians regardless of specialty, age or gender.
For many baby boomers, the move home is to be able to care for aging parents. Butch Bower, administrator of physician recruiting company The Curare Group, says "When that's their main motivation — caring for an aging parent — that's when they're really headed home."
Regardless of motivation, physicians returning to practice in their hometown positively impacts patient care, as deep roots in the community improve the experience for both patient and physician.
Maggie King, MD, a family practice physician, works at Pioneer Memorial Hospital in Prineville, Ore., and has deep roots in the area where her father practiced medicine and she grew up. She says she chose to come back after medical school "because of the job opportunity it presented"— a unique, and enticing, opportunity to provide care in a community she cared about.
Patients in Prineville are glad to have her back. "It seemed that patients were significantly more comfortable with me since I was from the area and could understand their own backgrounds a little better," says Dr. King.
Dr. King feels her return not only helped fill her town's need for skilled physicians but also revealed an innate advantage physicians have when their patients are neighbors and friends. "Our ability to care for our patients relies not only on knowledge and skill but also trust; and it is much easier to trust someone when you know they have walked the same trails, fished the same creeks, cheered at the same events," she says. "They are a little closer to family."
Jim W. Latimer, MD, is a family practice physician with Atlanta-based Piedmont Healthcare, and his family has deep roots in Henry County — his great-great-grandfather practiced medicine in the area in the 1850's. "It's rewarding to have that continuity," he says. "My great-great-grandfather probably treated the ancestors of some of the patients I have now."
Dr. Latimer's connection to the community allows him to "have a doctor-patient relationship at a deeper level," he says. "Knowing the patients and their families, and having them know mine for so long, is a positive" in providing care in his hometown, he says.
Melissa Nieland, MD, a family medicine provider at Belton (Texas) Clinic, part of Scott & White Healthcare, agrees that her hometown connection helps create a stronger physician-patient connection. "Lots of patients have come to me because I grew up here," says Dr. Nieland.
Dr. Nieland also says the care she provides has benefited from her hometown roots. "Working in an area I'm so familiar with is helpful because I know the community and specific problems that affect the community," she says, "and I know where the resources are, and I know how to help."
The desire to provide care in a hometown can be seen in more urban providers as well. Alison Estabrook, MD, chief of the Comprehensive Breast Center at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital in New York City, is a native New Yorker and returned to the city after college because she missed the cultural mix and vibrancy of the city.
Dr. Estabrook feels her New York upbringing (and love of the city) helps her relate better to her patients. Exposed to many different cultures as a child, she is uniquely positioned to relate to the population she serves: "I know the city, I know the populations and cultures," she says, and her patients are "happy I appreciate their culture." To understand a patient's background, to have been to their country or their borough and know literally where they're coming from, "makes patients relate to you more as a person," she says, and enhances the care provided.
"It does help [in my work] to be a New Yorker," says Dr. Estabrook. "I really know my patients."
Jim Stone, president of the National Association of Physician Recruiters, has noticed this trend. "Physicians gravitate naturally toward areas they are familiar with from some point in their lives," he says, citing hometowns as a preferred practice location for physicians regardless of specialty, age or gender.
For many baby boomers, the move home is to be able to care for aging parents. Butch Bower, administrator of physician recruiting company The Curare Group, says "When that's their main motivation — caring for an aging parent — that's when they're really headed home."
Regardless of motivation, physicians returning to practice in their hometown positively impacts patient care, as deep roots in the community improve the experience for both patient and physician.
Maggie King, MD, a family practice physician, works at Pioneer Memorial Hospital in Prineville, Ore., and has deep roots in the area where her father practiced medicine and she grew up. She says she chose to come back after medical school "because of the job opportunity it presented"— a unique, and enticing, opportunity to provide care in a community she cared about.
Patients in Prineville are glad to have her back. "It seemed that patients were significantly more comfortable with me since I was from the area and could understand their own backgrounds a little better," says Dr. King.
Dr. King feels her return not only helped fill her town's need for skilled physicians but also revealed an innate advantage physicians have when their patients are neighbors and friends. "Our ability to care for our patients relies not only on knowledge and skill but also trust; and it is much easier to trust someone when you know they have walked the same trails, fished the same creeks, cheered at the same events," she says. "They are a little closer to family."
Jim W. Latimer, MD, is a family practice physician with Atlanta-based Piedmont Healthcare, and his family has deep roots in Henry County — his great-great-grandfather practiced medicine in the area in the 1850's. "It's rewarding to have that continuity," he says. "My great-great-grandfather probably treated the ancestors of some of the patients I have now."
Dr. Latimer's connection to the community allows him to "have a doctor-patient relationship at a deeper level," he says. "Knowing the patients and their families, and having them know mine for so long, is a positive" in providing care in his hometown, he says.
Melissa Nieland, MD, a family medicine provider at Belton (Texas) Clinic, part of Scott & White Healthcare, agrees that her hometown connection helps create a stronger physician-patient connection. "Lots of patients have come to me because I grew up here," says Dr. Nieland.
Dr. Nieland also says the care she provides has benefited from her hometown roots. "Working in an area I'm so familiar with is helpful because I know the community and specific problems that affect the community," she says, "and I know where the resources are, and I know how to help."
The desire to provide care in a hometown can be seen in more urban providers as well. Alison Estabrook, MD, chief of the Comprehensive Breast Center at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital in New York City, is a native New Yorker and returned to the city after college because she missed the cultural mix and vibrancy of the city.
Dr. Estabrook feels her New York upbringing (and love of the city) helps her relate better to her patients. Exposed to many different cultures as a child, she is uniquely positioned to relate to the population she serves: "I know the city, I know the populations and cultures," she says, and her patients are "happy I appreciate their culture." To understand a patient's background, to have been to their country or their borough and know literally where they're coming from, "makes patients relate to you more as a person," she says, and enhances the care provided.
"It does help [in my work] to be a New Yorker," says Dr. Estabrook. "I really know my patients."