Staff Report
UNM's Department of Family and Community Medicine is celebrating its 10-year anniversary of sending medical experts deep into rural pockets of the state to provide care for New Mexico's underrepresented populations.
The Locum Tenens Program places University medical faculty, upper-level primary care residents and recent School of Medicine graduates in secluded areas of New Mexico.
So far, the program has provided 20,347 days of medical care in several areas around the state - adding up to more than 55 years of service.
This year alone, the program's members have practiced in 31 of the state's counties, providing more than 3,000 days of coverage.
"Ours is the largest academic program of its kind in the country," said Dan Derksen, director of the program, and UNMH physician, in a University news release. "It serves the New Mexico population in so many different ways."
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The program exposes recent or up-and-coming physicians to isolated areas at the moment they likely are pondering where they want to practice, Derksen said.
In exchange, residents receive educational credits toward their medical degree, as well as actual payment for their services. Moreover, he said, they can experience invaluable practical medical circumstances in a venue outside of UNM Hospital.
Derksen said the unique public/private, physician-relief/academic program managed through UNM's Health Sciences Center offers enormous benefits to practicing physicians, medical students and residents as well as New Mexico's rural population.
Residents have full access to the resources of the Health Sciences Center, the New Mexico Department of Health, federally funded community health centers, New Mexico Health Resources and other local and regional practices.
"For the most part, this program has been an absolute and total success," Derksen said. "We've been fortunate to maintain staff and mission continuity from the program's inception, along with UNM's ongoing commitment to rural outreach for all New Mexico residents."
Through Locum Tenens more than 50 UNM graduates who practiced medicine in rural areas of the state while in medical school have gone back to serve the same community - a very significant statistic, Derksen said.
He said the implementation of the program is in accordance with the Health Sciences Center's mission, which is to provide added value to health care through leadership in providing innovative, collaborative education; advancing frontiers of science through research critical to the future of health care; delivering health care services that are at the forefront of science; and facilitating partnerships with public and private biomedical and health enterprises.
"Hopefully we can continue to play this role, bridging a gap between the state's residents and its medical professionals, as well as providing an invaluable education to these medical personnel," Derksen said.
