University Daily Kansan / Monday, February 24, 1992
5
Christine McFartand / KANSAN
Sinking
Troy Chckley, Lawrence senior, pulls Kaci Love, Lawrence resident, from the grip of a man-made quicksand pit in Learned Hall. The engineering department opened its doors to the public Friday and Saturday and exhibited student projects.
Physician shortage hits rural Kansas
Continued from Page 1
"It is very rare for someone from either coast to want to go to the Midwest." Babchick said. "If they have come from any kind of urban area, the chances that they are going to go to a rural area is unlikely."
State Sen. Roy Ehrlich, R-Hoisington, heads the Senate Committee on Public Health and Welfare.
"We are losing doctors quite rapidly in rural areas," he said. "The people of Kansas living in inwarded areas are asking, 'How come?'
Many think there is no simple answer.
State Rep. Fred Gatlin, R-Atwood, is a member of the Joint Committee on Health Care. Gatlin said he thought physicians were more interested in specialty areas than in primary care.
"Traditionally, patients went to a family practitioner first, then to a specialist if that was necessary," he said. "Now, we have a situation where the number of specialists exceeds the number of general practitioners."
Lorene Valentine, director of rural health and education services at the Med Center's Wichita branch, said the isolation of a small town, as well as the
"When you practice alone, there is no one to cover for you and no way to get away," Valentine said.
probability of a solo practice, also discouraged physicians.
Malpractice insurance is another consideration, she said. Kansas is one of only a few states that require physicians to carry malpractice insurance.
Chip Wheelen of the Kansas Medical Society said he thought federal policy governing Medicare payments was a bigger problem.
Because rural areas have a proportionally greater elderly population than urban areas, this is another financial burden for doctors in rural communities, he said.
The agency reimburses new doctors
who work well-established physicians.
hssr.
Meanwhile, many lawmakers are looking to the Med Center for answers.
Ehrlich said, "The people in rural areas are crying to the University for help. The University is spending too much on specialty areas rather than general practice. The people of Kansas living in underserved areas are asking, 'Why?' and the only one that can answer that is the University of Kansas."
The Med Center has tried some programs to direct students toward prima-
Health care shortage
Source: University of Kansas Medical Center
Jeff Meesey. Daily Kanson
Lasseter is one of 35 students selected each year to receive a Kansas Medical Scholarship from the Med Center. The program pays tuition in return for service in an underserved rural community after completion of residency.
rv care in rural communities.
Lasseter said that after seven years of school and residency, going into family practice in a rural area, which
requires long hours and less pay, was not attractive. Most students instead opted to practice in specialty areas.
"Every doctor has a little bit of the missionary in them," he said. "But when you put them in the pressure cooker of the first two years of medical school ... you see (the students who had planned on practicing in a rural areas) dropping like flies."
Report cites release of radiation in Idaho
Energy Department's lab may have emitted dangerous doses
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Workers at an eastern Idaho nuclear engineering laboratory and people living nearby have been exposed to excessive doses of radiation, the General Accounting Office said in a report released yesterday.
GAO said the findings were based on an analysis of 115 known radiopic-
ation releases to the atmosphere from the Energy Department's Idaho National Engineering Laboratory and data on annual exposure.
It said two of the episodic releases would have exceeded present radiation protection standards for the public although they did not exceed the standards in effect at the time.
GAO also said 240 workers received
annual doses higher than the current exposure limits but not higher than those in effect from 1951 to 1958. It said these were the most recent data available.
Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, who heads the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, requested the report, saying the Energy Department had never conducted a study of all workers at the site to determine the health risks.
"I certainly hope this report will open some eyes and get such a study under way," Glenn said.
He said he would discuss the report with Energy Department officials at a hearing tomorrow and ask why so little attention had been paid to the people affected by these government experiments.
The primary function of the laboratory, which was opened in 1949, is to build, test and operate nuclear reactors and support facilities.
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