Despite the budget pressures this session, lawmakers found a way to provide some additional funding for the Wichita Center for Graduate Medical Education, the program that trains most of the state’s rural doctors.
Lawmakers, in the final budget they approved last week, included $3.5 million in state dollars for the program, which will attract $2.4 million in matching federal funds.
“The WCGME executive committee decided that in light of all the things that are going on with the budget, this is certainly an acceptable amount,” said Lana Oleen, director of governmental relations at WCGME. “But there will be some belt-tightening. It won’t be easy, but this will ensure the continuation of the program with the same number of slots, and strides will be made on the accreditations issues.”
WCGME officials had said without extra dollars the program would be in jeopardy because hospitals in the training consortium could no longer afford to train the customary number of residents and the center’s accreditation would in trouble because of new standards it couldn’t meet without more money.
The $5.9 million in state and federal assistance is 10 percent less than program officials had initially requested.
The $3.5 million from the state treasury will come from unexpected additional dollars from the settlement the state reached with major tobacco companies. The money will go to the Kansas Health Policy Authority, which will use it to bring in the $2.4 million federal match.
The health policy authority will then make the full amount available to the University of Kansas School of Medicine, which, in turn, will make sure that it’s spent on WCGME, officials said.
“We are cautiously optimistic,” said Penny Vogelsang, chief operating officer for WCGME.