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Jane Erikson ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Business group takes on MD, nurse shortages

Jessica Chodos is one of 13,600 fourth-year medical students who learned Thursday where they will spend the next several years in training, during annual Match Day ceremonies.

Chodos, 26, will get her medical degree from the University of Arizona in May, then leave for a three-year residency in general pediatrics at the University of California-San Diego.

One of the top students in her class, Chodos has yet to decide where she will put down her professional roots once she completes training.

She might come back to Tucson, she said, or she might opt for someplace new.

"Arizona would be really attractive for a new physician, because it's a growing population," said Chodos, who grew up in Tucson and Phoenix and got her undergraduate degree from the UA before entering medical school.

"Tucson and Phoenix are both great cities, and they're affordable. But I may decide to go somewhere else."

The Southern Arizona Leadership Council would like Chodos to come back.

The council of senior business leaders recently formed a health care task force that has identified four key issues affecting the quality of health care in this part of the state.

The issues are funding for trauma care, in light of Tucson Medical Center's decision last year to close its top-level trauma center; the rising cost of health care in general; the statewide nursing shortage; and the state's worsening shortage of physicians.

The gold standard is at least 200 physicians for every 100,000 people in a given area, according to national experts. Southern Arizona had 198 four years ago.

Today it has 172, according to the task force's research.

"We have some real problems with our physician base," said Bruce Beach, a certified public accountant with Beach Fleischman & Co.

"Our physician population is aging, and physicians are retiring earlier for a number of reasons," Beach said. "It's a problem that's really getting worse going forward. We know we have to create an environment that will attract more physicians and keep them here."

Steve Lynn, a Tucson Electric Power Co. vice president who chairs the leadership council, said health care issues in general are of major concern to businesses.

"Quality health care is something most employers are concerned about," Lynn said. "We want our employees to have access to quality health care.

"We want them to deal with health issues in a way that benefits them and their businesses."

The task force includes the CEOs of Carondelet Health Network, which owns St. Joseph's and St. Mary's hospitals; Tucson Medical Center and University Medical Center, Beach said.

But those health care providers cannot tackle the big issues on their own, said Frank Alvarez, TMC president and CEO.

"My hope is that with a non-health-care leadership, with the business community being the leader and bringing us providers together, we can come up with some new solutions," Alvarez said.

With regard to the physician shortage, he said, one "not inconceivable" solution would be to increase the number of hospitals in the state that have residents on their staffs.

"We need to be more attractive to future doctors," Alvarez said. "Maybe we can help them get real-estate loans or pay off their medical school debts. We're endeavoring to figure that out."

But of the 104 students in the UA College of Medicine's class of 2004, only 44 will do their residencies in Arizona, said Dr. Chris Leadem, senior associate dean of the UA College of Medicine.

"One of the strongest predictors of where a physician chooses to practice is where they do their residency," Leadem said.

That means most of the other 60 will not return to Arizona, he said.

Contact reporter Jane Erikson at 573-4118 or at jerikson@azstarnet.com.

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