HOUSTON COUNTY, Ga. — A group of Central Georgia healthcare businesses said they have more than 100 health care staff openings in Houston County alone.
Central Georgia Technical College has formed an alliance with them to help find and train workers. Internal medicine doctor Appavuchetty Soundappan said it's tough on his staff when they don't have enough people.
“It becomes very cumbersome for them and we have to delay patient care and not take too many patients that day because the medical assistant has to play a front office role as well as put patients in,” he said.
He opened his practice almost 30 years ago and said it runs smoothly when they have enough receptionists to check people in, phlebotomists to draw blood, medical coders to handle billing and nurse aides to prepare patients.
Now, any student who enrolls in the Central Georgia Technical College's Cross-Disciplinary Allied Health Training program will get a scholarship from the Central Georgia Medical Care Network to take certification courses.
"One of the things we know about Georgia, there are a number of counties that lack a primary care physician,” CGTC Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs Alvin Harmon said. “Well, not only do you need that physician, you need employees in that practice just to make sure that they can sustain the practice."
Almost all the students' expenses will be covered because Central Georgia Medical Care Network is providing more than $100,000 to the college.
"And then the employment will be readily available because we're going to train them in our offices after their education," Soundappan said.
Harmon said the goal is to bring 50 students into the program. The training takes about six months to complete including the in-office clinical training. And it's not just for students coming out of high school.
"The goal of this program is to cross train individuals who already work in private practices,” he said. “The rationale is we want to make sure that those practices can retain their employees so that they can continue to meet the health care needs of the community as well as meet the growth needs that we're experiencing here in Central Georgia."
Harmon said in the future, they'll expand this program to reach healthcare staff openings in more places. At the end of the program, students will receive the training certification needed to work full time in a medical office.
For more information, or to apply, you can reach out to Harmon at acharmon@centralgatech.edu.