TAMPA, Fla. — An ongoing effort to get critical care to people across the Tampa Bay area is happening now.
This comes amid a shortage of health care workers and a need for more healthcare options in rural areas.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, local health care leaders brought their concerns to lawmakers in Tallahassee, pushing for funding and legislation to protect your access to quality health care. That includes supporting rural hospitals and expanding graduate medical education programs, like the Internal Medicine Residency at AdventHealth in Tampa.
Dr. Joelian Andrew Mislay is part of a new class of medical school graduates with the Internal Medicine Residency at AdventHealth in Tampa.
"A good number of them are just like me, foreign graduates, but they actually migrated from another country here, and a lot of them are bringing their family here," Mislay said.
The internal medicine program launched last summer with the goal of bringing young doctors to the Tampa Bay area and keeping them here.
"I can't speak for them, for what they have in their future, but for me, I'm staying," Mislay said.
Dr. Aftab Ahmad runs the residency program.
"Down the road, when we have all these programs, they will start graduating the residents and we will really make a dent in that physician shortage that we are seeing in the area," Ahmad said.
According to the Florida Medical Association, Florida's physician shortage is projected to reach 36,000 by 2035.
Aftab said such a shortage would hurt hospitals, but mostly the public.
"There is a long waiting time, which is unacceptable," Aftab said. "Just imagine when you are sick, you do not want to hear, 'We do not have an appointment today, this week, or next week.'"
Jason Dunkel is president and CEO of the AdventHealth hospitals in Wauchula, Sebring and Lake Placid. Advent Health Wauchula is one of the 27 hospitals in Florida considered a rural hospital, which is now sharing a $10 million state grant.
"Everyone deserves the best health care," Dunkel said. "The biggest challenge for operating rural hospitals is the infrastructure is very expensive to keep our hospital going."
Their goal is to use state resources in a way that creates stronger hospitals, to attract and retain quality care, including young doctors like Mislay.
"For me, personally, the best thing that I can do after I finish my residency is to stay and to give back to the community that helped me get to where I am today," Mislay said.
The conversations in Tallahassee this week also focused on pending legislation dubbed the 'Live Healthy' proposal. Those backing the package say it would allocate millions of dollars to grow Florida's health care workforce, increase access, and incentivize innovation.