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Punxsutawney Area Hospital, the first clinical site for a medical college being developed at Indiana University of Pennsylvania
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Punxsutawney Area Hospital to be clinical practice site for IUP's new medical school

Kris Mamula/Post-Gazette

Punxsutawney Area Hospital to be clinical practice site for IUP's new medical school

The hospital's partnership with the university will extend a lifeline to a rural pocket of Pennsylvania

A tiny Jefferson County hospital will be the first clinical practice site for a new medical school that’s taking shape at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, extending a lifeline to a rural pocket of the state.

Here’s what to know about the program.

What’s the agreement?

IUP and the 49-bed Punxsutawney Area Hospital signed an agreement Monday that will eventually allow 120 medical students to use the hospital for the on the job training part of their medical education, addressing a critical physician recruitment problem in rural Pennsylvania.

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PAH, part of the three health system Pennsylvania Mountain Care Network collaborative, will be the first of many clinical sites that IUP’s college of osteopathic medicine anticipates using, university president Michael Driscoll said.

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Why was this necessary?

Fourteen percent of Jefferson County’s population of 44,000 is impoverished — 20% higher than the state average — and 21% is over age 65, he said, and recruiting doctors to practice in small town Pennsylvania can be difficult. The university-hospital alliance will help address that need, PAH President Jack Sisk said.

Typically, medical students spend the first two years of their education in the classroom, then train at clinical sites the third and fourth years.

IUP is seeking accreditation for the new medical school from the American Osteopathic Association, a three- to five-year process that’s occurring as PAH undergoes a $25 million expansion and renovation project.

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How is Punxsutawney Area Hospital affect long-term?

The IUP-PAH affiliation comes as a five-year-old program intended to help stabilize finances and improve care at rural hospitals starts to wind down. The Pennsylvania Rural Health Model, which gives small hospitals global payments for care from insurers to compensate for revenue variability, is scheduled to end in December.

Medicare will continue making global payments to the 18 participating hospitals for a few more years, including PAH, but commercial insurers are likely to drop out at the end of the year, said Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania President and CEO Nicole Stallings.

Affiliating with a medical school is a unique way for PAH to assure its future at a time when many rural Pennsylvania hospitals are cutting services and closing. Most recently, Penn Highlands Healthcare’s 163-bed hospital in Elk County, shuttered its maternity unit May 1, creating a six-county swath of northern Pennsylvania without a hospital obstetrics unit.

Addressing small towns and small hospitals

Among the services at Punxsutawney Area Hospital, which hospital president Mr. Sisk called a “small, little hospital in the middle of nowhere,” is an obstetrics unit, a service line Punxsutawney Area Hospital planned to continue. The hospital traces its roots to 1888.

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Only 5% of medical students are from rural areas, Dr. Simpson said, and the “disparity is only getting worse.” The IUP-PAH affiliation is a way to introduce tomorrow’s physicians to the rewards of practicing in small towns.

Meanwhile, Harrisburg-based HAP is pressing the General Assembly for a $25 million general fund investment that could leverage $80 million in additional federal funds to help prop up struggling hospitals.

Gov. Josh Shapiro has been developing a plan to address rural health problems, but Ms. Stallings said the $25 million is not part of his budget proposal, which is currently being negotiated.

First Published: June 25, 2024, 6:59 p.m.
Updated: June 26, 2024, 6:25 p.m.

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