Family physician Frank Swisher, DO, is up every day at 4:30 a.m. to see patients at the nearby hospital before heading to his office. He works an average of 80 hours a week at his solo practice in Jane Lew, W.Va., a rural town with a population of less than 500. Many patients drive more than an hour to see him, and he’s always on call.
But Dr. Swisher loves his community and his patients, and he says there are many rewards to being a small-town doctor. “You get to know the patients better,” he said. “I know their families, where they work and the kind of work they do. I’ll see grandkids, parents and grandparents.”
Small-town doctors throughout the U.S. say they are drawn to rural practice for the sense of community and personal connections with patients. Yet physician shortages have been a persistent problem in rural America for decades.
Medical schools nationwide are trying to tackle the problem. In the past decade, many have developed programs aimed at steering physicians toward rural practice. “Medical schools all around the country have developed rural-track programs,” said Randy Longenecker, MD, clinical professor of family medicine and assistant dean for Rural Medical Education at Ohio State University College of Medicine.
