Editor’s Note: This is one of a series of stories looking back at significant progress in Moultrie and Colquitt County during 2016.

MOULTRIE, Ga. — Colquitt Regional Medical Center made great strides in 2016 toward a long-term goal of becoming a regional provider of medical education.

Most of the work has come through a program called Georgia South, which was introduced to the community in 2015 as the umbrella under which the hospital’s new residency program would operate.

That residency program began in earnest in July 2016 when three recent graduates of the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine came to town. The trio — Jessica Brumfield, D.O., Michael Magat, D.O., and Marcos Hur, D.O. — are the inaugural class of the Georgia South Family Medicine Residency Program. The three-year program will add three new doctors each year, so when students arrive in July 2018, it should be maxed-out at nine doctors; three would graduate every year thereafter as three more come in.

The residency program began was a dream back in 2010 when five area hospitals began negotiations to create a system of such programs in Albany (which started one 20 years ago), Moultrie, Tifton, Thomasville and Valdosta. In 2012, the South Georgia Medical Education and Research Consortium opened its headquarters in Moultrie with former Colquitt Regional CEO Jim Lowry as its chairman.

When a student graduates from medical school, he’s a doctor, but he can’t actually practice medicine without doing a residency. That’s where he performs under the watchful eye of a licensed physician, learning to put into practice the academic education he received at medical school.

The United States faces a documented shortage of physicians as older doctors retire, and one reason is a shortage of available positions in residency programs, officials have said.

South Georgia in particular has a shortage of physicians, and Georgia South hopes to have a significant impact on that problem. Statistics show about 60 percent of doctors will settle down to practice within about 60 miles of where they do their residency. That can have a huge economic impact, too: Hospital officials said every new physician who comes into a community generates an economic impact of more than $1.5 million and creates five new jobs.

On Dec. 5, 2016, the hospital opened a new clinic that is staffed by the Georgia South residents and by Drs. Kirby Smith and Woody Weeks. Smith is the director of Georgia South.

While the residency program is the most visible accomplishment of Georgia South, other education initiatives have been going on quietly, Colquitt Regional President and CEO Jim Matney said.

“Besides teaching doctors we wanted to be a regional provider of medical education for physicians assistants, nurse practitioners (and others),” Matney said.

Examples of that include collaborations with Southern Regional Technical College to establish an LPN to RN program and with both Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College and Tift Regional Medical Center to establish a four-year nursing degree at ABAC.

The hospital has long been a supporter of health education programs at the former Moultrie Tech and its successor, SRTC. The LPN to RN program helps graduates of the licensed practical nursing program continue their education and become registered nurses.

“We worked with them to get the LPNs to actually go and get their RN degree right here in Moultrie,” said Matney, who noted Colquitt County currently has 167 LPNs.

Similarly, the program at ABAC in Tifton will train high school graduates over four years to receive the Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. The first class starts next fall, Matney said. The college already has a program to help RNs get their bachelor’s degree.

The other big news coming out of Georgia South, though, is still in its early stages. Colquitt Regional signed a memorandum of agreement Oct. 31, 2016, with Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine to develop a feasibility study for bringing a four-year medical school to South Georgia.

PCOM already has a campus in Suwannee, Ga., and — according to early plans — this would be a satellite campus of that facility located in Tift, Colquitt or Thomas county. It would provide a four-year medical education to college graduates, who would then have to attend a three-year residency before being able to practice medicine.

In an interview following the ceremony at which the memorandum was signed, PCOM President Dr. Jay Feldstein said he would expect approval of the plans some time between May and August of next year. The first class of students could begin studies possibly in August 2018.

Other than Georgia South, Colquitt Regional Medical Center has also been assisting the education of medical professionals through the Vereen Rehabilitation Center. Matney said the center hosts eight graduate students getting their master’s degree in athletic training, and it pairs them with area sports teams so they can get hands-on training in preventing injuries among South Georgia athletes.