TERRY TURNER: Medical care, medical need, and medical education

Published 11:06 am Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Colquitt County has much to recommend it. It is the state’s premier county for agricultural production, has significant meat and poultry processing plants, and is home to one of the largest agricultural equipment enterprises in the state. Beyond agriculture, we have many successful small businesses; a dedicated school system; a community-supported arts center; and one of the finest outdoor, competition diving facilities in the country. Finally, we have one of the premier medical centers in south Georgia. We should be especially grateful for the latter.

We need the medical center to help us take care of our health because, unfortunately, we don’t take very good care of it ourselves. According to the Georgia Department of Public Health along with other sources, Colquitt County outpaces both the nation and the state with its rates of heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease, and obesity, among others. Further, local syphilis and HIV infection rates are higher than state averages, the latter being more than twice as high! Most of these ills are associated with life-style choices, what we chose to eat and drink or how we chose to recreate and exercise. As a result of all such health factors, Colquitt County ranks 119th among all 156 Georgia counties. In short, Colquitt County is among the state’s worst in health status, not among its best. That means our medical center has much to work with. It is rising to the challenge.

In the last decade, the medical center has expanded to include a rehab center, a women’s health center, a heart center, and a cancer center in addition to having renovated and updated its core hospital. In addition to those and other advances to help heal our ills, the medical center is also becoming a leader in medical education. Colquitt Regional already supports physician residency programs (post-doctorate clinical training) in both family medicine and psychiatry. It also supports a nurse residency program (training for new nurses) and a variety of training programs for other health care personnel. Medically related training is constantly being revised, methods improved, new skills developed, and new treatment programs instituted. For that reason, medical and medically related education has become a part of a medical center’s ability to deliver excellent medical care.

Colquitt Regional Medical Center has recently undertaken a major step in advancing its education goals by beginning construction of a new medical education building. The two-story, 39,000 square foot facility will serve the center’s medical residency programs, the nursing residency program, and the education needs of other physician, nursing, therapy, and technical staff. The education building will include four labs equipped with current-generation medical simulation mannikins. Those labs will allow the training, observation, and recording of learners being taught to deal with a variety of important medical procedures. Separate skills labs will focus on specific nursing and technical skills and a computer lab will serve all trainees. A large auditorium and smaller meeting/class rooms will serve various sized groups receiving medical, nursing, or allied-health training and current plans are to make those specific spaces available for public use when they are not being used by the medical center.

In short, the medical center is making a major stride toward becoming a premier source of medical education not only for its own medical staff and residency programs, but for the community, at large. Medical education that is accurate, current, and evidence-based should be a hallmark of any medical system and Colquitt Regional’s new education center will help it provide that kind of education. For those efforts, the medical center deserves community support and a round of applause.