The Rural Partnership's Purpose

The purpose of The Rural Partnership is to develop a system to assist in the recruitment, placement, and retention of physicians, physician assistants, advanced practice nurses, and other health professionals in Tennessee's rural counties. The new not-for-profit corporation will assess demand for selected health professionals, identify vacancies and new opportunities, develop a statewide practice opportunity profile, and provide placement assistance to providers, communities, and organizations. With the support of the universities, the medical residencies, state Department of Health, TennCare, and state associations that represent a broad range of rural interests, The Rural Partnership will be as successful as other statewide rural recruitment programs sponsored by states surrounding Tennessee. We look forward to serving providers and communities throughout Tennessee.

Statewide Demand Assessment
In 2000, 53 of Tennessee's 95 counties were federally-designated Health Professional Shortage Areas and 25 counties were designated as State Shortage Areas for primary care, pediatrics, or obstetrics. A Demand Assessment, modeled after the highly successful Minnesota Center for Rural Health Resource Center, was sponsored by Tennessee's medical schools. The Demand Assessment's purpose was to identify if shortage numbers were merely the product of statistics or whether there was in fact demand for more health professionals by rural practices and hospitals.
The 2001 mail survey found that rural practices were recruiting 330 physicians and an additional 25 nurse practitioner and physician assistants. This demand was present in all of the state's regions and in most of the 91 non-metropolitan counties.
These findings encouraged the Rural Health Association of Tennessee, numerous state health associations, and the medical and nursing schools to approach TennCare to revise an unused medical resident stipend program designed to assist in recruitment of physicians into rural Tennessee counties.
The plan, developed by a board of directors, was approved by TennCare in 2005 and in 2006 The Rural Partnership began operations. Cindy Siler, longtime health administrator from East Tennessee, has been hired as The Rural Partnership's Executive Director, and has establish an office in Nashville. We are all proud that our persistence and spirit of cooperation will result in improved health status for families in in Tennessee's rural communities.

Current Effort
The 2006 Demand Assessment survey has been sent to all independent practices or offices, hospitals, health systems, certified rural health clinics, state facilities, and community migrant health centers in rural and underserved areas of Tennessee who employ and/or recruit physicians, advanced practice nurses, and physician assistants for current and projected vacancies. A weekly report is being posted for the Board of Directors and Task Force members and a complete report will be provided in the resource area of this website Summer 2007.