A Medical School at URI would be a boon for South County

Much to gain, little to lose 

By Sen. Alana M. DiMario 

As South County residents, we know that as difficult as the primary care provider shortage is for folks across Rhode Island, it is worse down here. 

Ask any group of people from North Kingstown to New Shoreham and you’ll hear the same stories: physicians retiring or leaving the state with no one to take their patients at their clinic, leaving their patients bouncing from provider to provider, driving up to Providence or beyond for routine care or just giving up and going without a primary care provider. 

There is no single solution to this problem. Last year the General Assembly began the process of increasing primary care reimbursement rates and reduced prior authorization requirements to make Rhode Island more attractive to primary care providers, but it’s not enough to just hold onto the providers we have: we need a supply of new primary care providers to make up the gap. 

That is why the Senate launched a commission last year to study the feasibility and impact of starting a primary-care-focused medical school at the University of Rhode Island. I served on the commission and I believe that its conclusion that “a state medical school would provide transformative long-term benefits for the state’s healthcare system, economy and communities” goes double for South County. 

A medical school at URI would be a sustainable pipeline of homegrown doctors in our backyard that we sorely need. 

South County lacks the density of medical providers that the area around the Brown University medical school in Providence has, and we see the impact when we try to find a doctor.  

A medical school in South County would mean hiring more physicians to teach and work in the area, starting now. It would mean more students doing their residencies in spots we will create in our clinics and hospitals. And it would mean more graduating physicians falling in love with South County and sticking around, putting down roots, starting families and serving our residents for years to come. 

The commission found that studies consistently show that physicians are more likely to practice where they are educated and complete residency. And a public medical school geared toward primary care is a lower-cost option that reduces the student loan debt that often drives graduates to higher-paying specialties. 

The benefits go beyond making it easier to find a primary care provider. More primary care visits mean less emergency room and urgent care visits, taking the strain off our local hospitals and decreasing medical costs across the system, costs that show up in all our insurance premiums. Economic impact studies show that for every dollar we invest in a medical school, we get $8.70 in return — and that’s not even counting the public health economic benefits. 

A medical school at URI is an investment in South County. Creating a public medical school at URI is a smart use of public and private healthcare dollars that will bring huge returns. The cost of inaction will be substantial and will impact our ability to access healthcare for years to come.  

Alana M. DiMario is a licensed mental health counselor and represents District 36 (Narragansett, North Kingstown, New Shoreham) in the Rhode Island Senate.