Thank you for visiting The Rural Partnership, the premier resource for connecting physicians and clinicians with communities in Tennessee’s rural and underserved areas.
We strive to ensure that we address the needs of communities and health professionals by providing consistent and reliable information. Evaluating and improving services through the use of surveys and outcome measurements through high professional and ethical standards are our priority. Please contact us to learn how The Rural Partnership may help you.
The Rural Partnership’s Purpose
The purpose of The Rural Partnership is to assist in the recruitment, placement, and retention of physicians, physician assistants, advanced practice nurses, and other health professionals in Tennessee’s rural counties. This not-for-profit corporation assesses demand for selected health professionals, identifies vacancies and new opportunities, develops a statewide practice opportunity profile, and provides placement assistance to providers, communities, and organizations. With the support of the universities, the medical residencies, Tennessee Department of Health, TennCare, and state associations representing a broad range of rural interests, The Rural Partnership will be as successful as the other statewide rural recruitment programs sponsored by states surrounding Tennessee. We enjoy serving providers and communities throughout Tennessee.
Statewide Demand Assessment
In 2000, 53 of Tennessee’s 95 counties were federally-designated Health Professional Shortage Areas and 25 counties were designated as State Shortage Areas for primary care, pediatrics, or obstetrics. A Demand Assessment, modeled after one conducted by the highly successful Minnesota Center for Rural Health Resource Center, was sponsored by Tennessee’s medical schools. The Demand Assessment’s purpose was to identify if shortage numbers were merely the product of statistics or whether there was in fact demand for more health professionals by rural practices and hospitals.
The 2001 mail survey found that rural practices were recruiting 330 physicians and an additional 25 nurse practitioner and physician assistants. This demand was present in all of the state’s regions and in most of the 91 non-metropolitan counties. These findings encouraged the Rural Health Association of Tennessee, numerous state health associations, and the medical and nursing schools to approach TennCare to revise an unused medical resident stipend program designed to assist in recruitment of physicians into rural Tennessee counties.
A plan to establish an organization to answer this need was developed by a board of directors and approved by TennCare in 2005. In 2006, The Rural Partnership began operations with Cindy Siler, longtime health administrator from East Tennessee, as CEO.
Current Demand Assessment Effort
The 2008 Demand Assessment is the product of information elicited from all independent practices or offices, hospitals, health systems, certified rural health clinics, state facilities, and community migrant health centers in rural and underserved areas of Tennessee who employ and/or recruit physicians, advanced practice nurses, and physician assistants for current and projected vacancies. The summarized results of the survey are available through this link:
The Rural Partnership
500 Interstate Boulevard South, Suite 203
Nashville, Tennessee 37210-4634